Away From Myself
by Madvy
Summary: Leo and Splinter take a supernatural journey that was intended to be a learning experience. But when the trip turns into a nightmare, Leo must quickly train his brothers in the mystic arts in order to save Master Splinter.
1. Can I Really Do It?

**Disclaimer: Only Peter Laird and the other guys at MIRAGE own the turtles. Not me, unfortunately.**

**Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a TMNT story, so be gentle please. It was inspired by Issue #2 of the second volume of the Tales of the TMNT. I loved the idea of Splinter being able to travel outside of his body to someplace far away, so I have decided to try and expand upon the idea. I've actually had this short beginning of this story in my head for awhile now, but I couldn't come up with a valuable story for the rest of it. I'm not exactly sure where I will be going with this one, but I will try to make it good. Sorry it's so short, but it's only the first chapter so bear with me. I will try to lengthen the chapters as the story progresses. And like all the other stories out there, please review and tell me what you guys think.**

**"Away From Myself" **

By Madvy

Chapter 1-Can I Really Do It?

**  
He wasn't sure if he could do it. It wasn't like he hadn't ever tried it before, because he had. But that was only for a minute at the most, never for the length of time his father was now warning him of. At first, the idea had seemed almost absurd, but the more he thought about it, the more plausible it had become. After all, Splinter had done it before not too long ago. But him, well, he was another story. **

**Though he would never admit it to anyone, he was a little afraid to try astral projection in its full entity. He had had practice with it before, leaving his body for a few second long exercises and always under his master's careful supervision. Still, the blue clad turtle had only recently begun the more challenging steps of his mental training. He had mastered meditation long ago as well as being able to channel his energy into specific parts of his body and being able to fight using only is _chi_ (life energy). But extended astral projection was still something he struggled with.**

**Leo had been practicing with Splinter for some time now. His practices were intentionally spread out because, until one had become a true master of astral projection, allowing the soul to spend any time outside its natural home would drain the body of a good amount of energy. Leo would often be excused from regular practice and spend the rest of the day sleeping because the mental exercises were so strenuous. This would regularly annoy the other turtles, especially Raphael, who felt that Splinter was just letting Leonardo get off easy while they still had to practice.**

**Raph would often ask Leo why he wasn't practicing with them as much nowadays, while Donnie would inquire as to why Leo was so tired as of late. Mikey wondered what his oldest brother and his father were doing in Splinter's room for up to hours at a time. Leo never liked to lie to anybody, let alone to his brothers. But Splinter had made him promise not to tell the others of their special sessions because he felt that they weren't ready to endure training which required some of the greatest amounts of concentration that ninjitsu could require.**

**At first, Leo had questioned his father as to why they wouldn't tell the other members of their family. If seemed so out of character for Master Splinter to want to keep a secret from any of his sons. But Splinter had remained steadfast to his decision. "We shall allow them to train with us when they are first able to master full meditation," was his response. Though Leo still wasn't sure, this secret didn't seem like too big of a deal. And he trusted his master, so he kept his mouth shut. Yet, he still had to tell his brothers something, and not lie at the same time. Luckily, Leo had a way of bending the truth to where he wasn't lying yet wasn't betraying his promise to Splinter.**

"**Sensei and I have been having special sessions together. It's nothing, just something to help me improve my concentration. That's all." Such an answer would usually satisfy Don and Mike (to an extent at least), but Raph was always more persistent. He would continue asking Leo, again and again, why he kept skipping practice to sleep and what he and their Sensei were really doing. Leo could tell that Raph knew that something was up and that he would stop at nothing to find out what. Raphael was never one to enjoy being left out of a secret, big or small.**

**It got so bad that Leo was finally forced to ask Master Splinter if he could possibly let Raph in on their secret, just to get the prying turtle off his back. But the old rat retained his original choice. "No. We shall continue your lessons in private. As I have said before, when your brothers are ready, they will join us. For now, reassure them that all is still well, and that they do not have to worry anymore."**

**And that was how life had progressed over the last few weeks. The sessions continued, each day, leaving Leo a bit tired, but more skilled in the ways of the mystic arts. Until the day came when Splinter decided to push Leo's training to a higher level.**

"**My son, I believe today might be an appropriate time to try something more difficult," said Splinter.**

"**What is it Sensei?" asked Leo.**

"**It is a degree of astral projection that I have used only on sparse occasions, yet one that I have found most valuable in the past." Leo leaned in closer to hear. Such a startling jump in his training was a rare occurrence and one that had peaked his curiosity. "Today I will teach how to travel to other planes of the consciousness, to other places where only souls can reach, to use what you have been learning from me to train with other teachers outside of this physical world."**

**At first, a slight daze was all that ruled over Leo. He wasn't completely sure that he had understood or even heard what his sensei had just said. It all seemed so difficult to comprehend. The truth of the matter was that the turtle was in shock. 'Travel to other planes of consciousness, go where only souls can go, train with other teachers…what could Splinter possibly be referring to?' thought Leo, 'I know I was practicing to learn how to separate my soul from my body, but never to a degree like this.'**

"**My son, this exercise is one of the most difficult of the mental practices. It involves total concentration combined with relaxation. It entails intense focus through pure thought, as well as the ability to follow energy trails that shall be your only guide into the other planes. One must have courage because a journey such as this can last for hours, and one that can leave the body empty for extended periods at a time."**

**Hurried thoughts swam through Leo's mind. 'Total concentration? Intense focus? Last for hours? Leave the body empty for extended periods of time? What could Master Splinter possibly be thinking on this one?' Leo was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear Splinter's voice once more.**

"**Leonardo? My son, did you hear what I have said?"**

**Snapping out of his thoughts, Leo quickly found his voice once more. "But master, do you really think I can do it? I mean, I haven't had as much practice with this as you have. I know my soul can travel freely in this world, but outside of the physical plane? I…I can barely handle reentering my body after only a few minutes, a half-hour at the most, but…this? I just…just…"**

**Sensing his son's obvious discomfort, Splinter laid a reassuring hand on Leo's shoulder. "Leonardo, I have faith in you. Do not forget, I have been closely monitoring your progress and I believe that you are ready. You have been doing remarkably well. You have demonstrated a control over astral projection that I, myself, am amazed you have been able to grasp in such a short time. I feel that you are not giving yourself enough credit. I am sure that you will be able to handle this."**

"**You really think I can do this?"**

"**Yes. You only need remember what I have taught you and have confidence in your skills. Besides, I believe that you will enjoy the outcome of this…excursion. So, are you ready to try?"**

**Upon his first instinct, Leo probably would have said 'No,' but hearing his master express such confidence in him, filled Leo will more self-reassurance than he felt in a long time. "Yeah, I mean, yes sensei. If you believe in me, then I guess I'm willing to try anything."**

"**All right. But first, I must take care of something." Leaving Leo sitting on the floor, Splinter walked to the front of his room. Sliding the door aside, he called to Michelangelo, who was sitting, as usual, in front of the television screens in the living room. "Michelangelo. Michelangelo!"**

**Snapping out of a daze, Mikey quickly twisted his head around towards his father's voice. "Yeah, oh sorry sensei. I didn't hear you there. What is it?"**

"**Michelangelo, if you please, will you tell your brothers that today shall be a day off from your studies and not to disturb either me or Leonardo for the rest of the day. And the same goes for you."**

"**Ok, sensei. I'll tell everybody just as soon as _Happy Days_ is over."**

"**Thank you my son. Now if you will excuse me, Leonardo and I have some special training to complete." And with that, Splinter closed his door on a now somewhat confused Michelangelo.**

**Quietly, Leonardo watched as his sensei closed the door and walked across the room. All was silent, until the rat suddenly broke the quiet. "Now that that is settled, let us begin." Realizing that there was no turning back now, Leo nodded and waited for his master to begin.**

**The two had now seated themselves across from one another in the center of the room, each taking up the traditional lotus position of meditation. With eyes closed, they sat in silence, as the sounds of the rest of the lair filled the air: the TV that Michelangelo was still watching, the grunts, punches, and kicks from the dojo as Raphael vented his usual anger on a training dummy, and the squeaks and clangs as Donatello tinkered with yet another of his many inventions. None of the three turtles would have guessed as to what Leonardo and Master Splinter were about to do or to where the two were about to go. **

**Author's Note: Well, that's it for now. Don't worry. I promise to update really soon. I'm going to try this story out on my little sister to see what she thinks of it and, based on how the reviews go, whether I will be continuing this story for too much longer. As I have been learning in my Economics class, if the demand for more of my story is high, then I will just have to keep on supplying. Take care everyone and as always, GOD BLESS:)**


	2. Here We Go

Disclaimer: Peter Laird and the MIRAGE team are the only people out there who own the turtles. Lucky them. They get to do whatever they want with the guys, while the rest of us can only watch and read their material and beg for a lending agent as we continue to write our own stories.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry for not updating this story any sooner. I had a ton of homework-an English research paper, Physics problems and a test, Economics vocabulary, a character analysis, a journal entry, some Spanish sentences, and a hoard of other things to do. I also had to complete this HUGE Government project. Man, I have only two months of high school left and already I feel like I'm in college. Plus, my computer wouldn't take me to the site. It kept saying it wasn't available or something. And wouldn't accept any updates or submissions on because of all the updates they were installing, so I had to wait. Anyway, as an apology to my readers, I've added a chapter to this story and have posted another one-shot story that I hope you all will enjoy (it's not my Klunk story though. Hint-hint). Anyway, I'd just like to give a few shout-outs to those who did review:

**_kikiyophoenix19_**-I'm glad you like my story. Here's some more for you.

**_Pi90kantana_**-As you can see, I no longer type in bold. I'm not even sure why I did it in the first. I probably hit the bold type button by accident. Microsoft Word can so frustrating to use sometimes.

**_pacphys_**-I know you liked the first chapter, so I hope you enjoy this next one. It's more suspenseful, but still has some interesting twists to it.

**_Chibi Rose Angel_**-I read your Mikey story, "Death, Destruction, and Darkness." I really liked it. I left a nice review for you. I hope you will be finishing it up really soon. I'm glad you like being on my list of favorite authors. I hope that someday I can be listed as one of someone's favorite authors. I would be quite honored by that as well. And by the way, it feels great to have my first turtle story up! I'm glad that people like so much. And, I included a little more of _Happy Days_ in my Klunk story just for you.

**_Darktiger2_**-As you asked for it, here's my update!

**_Goblin Cat KC_**-I'm pleased you like my idea. I actually got some of it from the end of your "Sharks" story. I hope you don't mind. I love your stories a lot. Keep updating!

**_Dierdre_**-I haven't seen your name around before. Are you new? Whether yes or no, I love fans that enjoy my writing. Thanks for the compliment. Here is the next chapter for you.

I'd like to personally thank all of you who reviewed. Your words of encouragement are incredibly valuable to a first time writer like me. They give me the will to continue writing and the knowledge that someone actually likes what I get down on paper. I'm also glad everybody liked my Klunk story. Thanks everyone and keep those reviews coming!

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Chapter 2-Here We Go.

Leonardo tried his best to relax. Though his long-standing meditation practices did assist him, he couldn't help but be slightly anxious about was he going to do. He wasn't completely sure what Master Splinter had in mind for them, or where they were even going for that matter. But, as always, he trusted his master. And besides, Splinter had said that he may enjoy where they were going, which also helped to calm him down.

Sensing his son's bottled anxiety, Splinter spoke in a reassuring voice. "There is no need to fear, my son. Calm yourself. All will be well, but you will never accomplish this if you do not relax."

"I'm sorry sensei; I'm trying. I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

"As I said, there is nothing to be afraid of, my son. I promise, I will let no harm come to you. Now…it is time to relax our non-spiritual reality. Slow it down and push it aside…"

Leo took a deep breath as he listened and tried to obey his father's words.

"Gather your consciousness and focus it at the center, at the mind's eye…as pure thought, and then…" Splinter began to feel his consciousness slip out of his body. "Then let it all flow out, release yourself out upon the sea of consciousness, as you feel yourself leave your spirit's haven." A few seconds later, and Splinter was free. His soul was now completely separate from his body.

If anyone else had been in the room, they may have noticed a small ball of light, with a dull mist surrounding it, leave Splinter's body, but the room was empty except for the rat and turtle. The ball turned and stared at the reptile below it. 'If all goes well, Leonardo should be joining me soon,' it thought.

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The turtle breathed deep. His sensei's comforting words had calmed him, as he focused his mind at its very core. He could see his thoughts revolving around inside his head; such intense concentration would have exhausted anyone else, but Leo couldn't sense anything. He could feel himself moving upward, almost as if he was floating, up and up and up, until...

He was free too. It was the most startling sensation he had ever experienced-more than being stabbed or cut or sick or scared, or anything else. It was like all his senses, all his emotions, all his feelings, his very being had been rolled into one, into his present state. He looked around. He felt strange, different somehow, like he had never truly felt before. The feeling was both familiar and peculiar.

He looked around. Beneath him, sat his body, as well as Master Splinter's; both frozen in the positions that their souls had left them in. Such a sight wasn't new to Leonardo. Having practiced some astral projection before, he had gotten over the initial shock of looking at one's self without a mirror. He had spent over a day in his room, recovering from the feeling of being dead-a lonely soul without a body to claim. Now, looking at his body, Leo couldn't help but feel a sense of freedom overcome him. It felt like he could go anywhere now. Like he didn't have to stay locked away in the sewers anymore, or hide in the shadows. He could travel to the surface world and roam freely, without having to worry about being seen. Most think that having an out-of-body experience is horrifying, but Leo was beginning to believe that this one would be quite enjoyable.

His hapless dreaming was suddenly interrupted by Splinter's monotone voice. "Come my son, we must go. We cannot spend too much time away from our bodies. If I am to show you all that I wish to, we must leave soon."

At first, Leo wasn't sure where his master's voice had come from. But as he looked closer, he noticed the white ball hovering in the air. "Master Splinter?" he asked, "Is that you?"

"Yes, my son. This is simply my spirit in its most relinquished form."

"Are you sure? I mean, I always thought that spirits were like ghosts, you know? That they looked like the person in life, not like floating white balls."

"I'm afraid you have been fooled by the movies my son. Spirits appear as they wish to appear. But, we are not ghosts, for we are not dead. We are merely in another state of being that is still conscious of the world around us." Though he could not see his son's face, Splinter could see feel the sense of confusion coming from Leo's aura. "But, if you need more solid proof my son, go look at yourself in my mirror."

'Look at myself in a mirror? Why haven't I done that before?' thought Leo. He gently hovered over to a mirror that Splinter kept in the back of his room. (I know, you're thinking 'Why would a rat possibly want a mirror?' but come on. Everyone is curious as to what they look like sometimes, and I'm sure Splinter could use one to make sure that his fur still looks nice every once in awhile. Now, back to the story.)

Through all his practice sessions in the past, Leo had never once had enough time to observe his spirit self in the mirror. Curious, he approached the mirror slowly. At first, he was taken aback. There, hovering in the middle of the mirror was a cyan colored ball, with whitish mish encircling it. It looked to be no bigger than a fist, and had a slight shimmer to it. He cocked his head, and watched as the ball copied his motion by swaying slightly.

Splinter floated up behind Leo. "You see, Leonardo. This is what your soul looks like in its most pure form. It is simply an essence, without all the elaborate details." Noticing the color of Leo's spherical soul, he added, "But I see that some characteristics are more difficult to lose."

A quiet laugh escaped from the blue ball. "Humph. I never would have guessed that this is what I looked like through all those training sessions. Just a tiny blue ball, floating around. I bet I could really scare the shell out of the guys if they saw me like this."

Splinter couldn't help but chuckle as well. "Only to those who do not understand what they were looking at would be afraid of a soul. To those more experienced, we would appear only as traveling souls on a journey of some sort. Now come, we have spent too much time here. My friends are waiting for us." The white ball left Leo's side.

Confused by his master's last comment, Leo turned. "Friends? What friends sensei?"

"Do not worry so, my son. You will meet them soon. Now, prepare yourself, for we are leaving now. We are going into a world beyond the physical plane, into a realm of the senses that lie beyond the five most know and through doors that have been opened by few and entered through by fewer still. In short, we are going into the world of the mystic."

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Michelangelo was beginning to worry. His father and oldest brother had been in Splinter's room for some time now, but that wasn't what was bothering him. He had heard the two talking to one another for a little bit, but then, silence had overtaken the rat's room. Though Mikey knew Splinter and Leo could be extremely quiet during meditation practices, he had never know their silence to last this long. Looking at the digital clock of the VCR, he realized that they had been in there for over five hours, or at least five hours since Splinter had last spoken to him.

"What could those two be doing in there?" he wondered. Nothing good was on the TV anymore, so he decided to check in on the two, just to make sure everything was alright. "I'm sure they won't mind if I take just a little peak."

Walking up to Splinter's room, he slid the door open as quietly as he could and peaked in. The room was still silent, and lit by a role of candles on one of the shelves. In the center, Leo and Splinter sat on a mat in the lotus position, with closed eyes.

'They must still be meditating,' he thought. Not wanting to disturb them, he carefully pulled the sliding door shut. Suddenly, a lingering question appeared in his mind. Though he desperately wanted to go back to watching TV, Mikey knew that once a question like this popped into his mind, then there was only one soul who could answer it.

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Donatello was still busy in his room. He had long ago transformed a portion of his living quarters into a working lab, an option that he utilized whenever he needed some private space to work in peace. He was completely absorbed in repairing a broken radio when Mikey walked in.

"Hey Don?"

Without even looking up, Don gave off an already annoyed breath. He hated it when his work was interrupted. "What is it Mikey?"

"Um, how long can people stay in meditation?"

Surprised by the randomness of the question, Don turned around to face his brother. "What?"

"How long can people stay in mediation? What is it-a couple of hours?"

"I don't know. I've never thought about anything like that before. Why don't you go ask Leo? I'm sure he'd better at answering something like that." He turned back to the radio.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because Leo's been meditating with Master Splinter for over five hours now. They haven't made a peep or anything. I don't even think they've moved at all. I looked in on them and they were just sitting there really quiet and stuff, like they were concentrating really hard on something. But don't ask me what, cause' I wouldn't know. Anyway, I was just curious because I've never known them to meditate for this long."

"Hmm, are you sure that nothing might be wrong with them?"

"I don't think so. They didn't look like they were in pain or anything. Just really, really focused is all. The strange thing is when I checked on them, I got this really weird feeling-like the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped because I felt really cold. But then, it disappeared. It was like someone had closed the door and stopped letting all the warm out. But I don't get it. You didn't turn the temp down or something did you?"

"No, I haven't." A murmured feeling of worry was beginning to creep up on Donnie too. Trusting his intellect though over his gut, Don shrugged it off. "Look, I'm sure it's nothing Mikey." He put a reassuring arm over Mike's shoulders. "Leo and Splinter are fine. You know how they can be sometimes when they get really into all that spiritual stuff. They get so quiet, it's like they're not even in their own bodies anymore."

Laughing uneasily, Mikey said, "Yeah, I bet you're right. It's probably just my imagination running away with me. Oh man, I can't believe I just said that."

"It happens to the best of us," said Don. Returning to his repair job, Don left Mike to his thoughts.

"Yeah, Don's right. It's probably nothing." As he went back to the living room, Mikey began to get the feeling that something bad was going to happen. "Now I'm starting to feel like Leo," he said as he sat back down on the couch, "Mr. Paranoid." He turned the TV on once more. But as he as he stared at the showcasing commercials, the turtle couldn't shake the feeling that something out of the ordinary was occurring somewhere very close by.

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Author's Note: Another chapter down, another to go. Leave me some reviews for this chapter, so that I will have some incentive to get writing! Hope everyone is enjoying this story so far as well as my other stories. I will try to update this story much sooner than I have been. Trust me; I know how aggravating waiting for the next chapter of a story can be. I will try to get the chapter up this weekend at the latest. However, it all depends on how busy I will be. Take care all my faithful readers and as always, GOD BLESS:)


	3. Where Are We?

Disclaimer: For now and forever more, I will never own the turtles or Master Splinter. I do, however, own any of the other characters that happen to show up in this chapter. Thank you for your understanding. (P.S. You can send all the attorneys away now.)

Author's Note: Once again, my homework got the better of me, which caused me to allow a stall in my updates. I'm sorry guys, but with high school winding down so fast, the teachers are putting more on the seniors to try and make sure that all the stuff we need to know is cramped into our brains. I don't usually mind it, but the senioritis bug is becoming more and more contagious. I don't have it yet, but if I don't continue taking my homework pills and drinking plenty of passing grades, then I won't make it past graduation; which would be a horrid event since a portion of my family is flying here for my graduation. But I think I will be ok. On a lighter note, Prom is tomorrow! I can't wait! I've got my dress, which is a beautiful blue with straps and plenty of sparkles. I'm going with a big group of couples, though my date and I are only friends. It's going to be a lot of fun; we even get Monday off! What a nice gift to all the prom attendees. If I am not too tired from the dance to update, then I will. And have no fear, I don't do any of that drinking and driving stuff, (I'm not sure if anyone would after the program that all the seniors saw today) so rest assured, your author will still be here to continue updating next week. Anyway, thank you to every one who reviewed my last chapter. I love all the comments you guys leave me:

**_Pi09katana: _**I know how you feel; I love Spring Break too! Too bad it's over for me. Anyway, I shouldn't ever be using the bold type again, unless I have a specific use for it. I'm glad you like the story so far, and thanks for the compliments on my description. I really try hard to allow all my readers to picture the action in their heads as I see it when I write it. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.

**_Darktiger2:_** Hearing you say you like my story really means a lot to me. I love reading your stories, so I feel privileged to know that you are enjoying mine. I think everyone likes my idea of colored spirit balls. As a little heads up, you'll be seeing more of them soon. And, I've added a information about them, so read on if you'd like to know more.

**_pacphys: _**I thought Leo as a floating ball was a cute idea when I wrote it too. I felt it would be cool to see him in such a vulnerable state, and it opened up a whole world of possibilities for what I could do with him. I hope you like where I have decided to go with this story. And I purposely put that Donnie line in, just to see if anyone was paying attention.

**_Kikiyophoenix19: _**Have no fear, the guys will be getting their fair share of trouble really soon. I just am having to set up the opening plot of my story so that everyone will know how the characters got into an upcoming situation. I hope this chapter will meet your expectations. If not, well I can always try again on my next update…

**_Ryan Phelan: _**It's cool to see that you used to be a MD fan like me. I used to love all the Wing/Dive stories and I still do. But with the show off the air, well, stories only provide so much satisfaction. But the turtles are brothers, so their stories help fill in the hole left behind by the ducks. I see you like my description too. It's cool that I have so many readers that are enjoying my writing. I'll try not to disappoint anyone. And you're right: things are going to get interesting very soon.

**_spootycup: _**HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER, HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER, HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER! THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT!

**_Chibi Rose Angel: _**Wow, I'm finally on someone's favorite author's list. I think I'm going to cry… (wipes eyes with a tissue). I'm alright, I'm alright. Thank you for the kind words. I hate having to rush things, so I am trying to take my time with this one. I'm very happy that you enjoy my writing. And I'm glad you liked my Klunk story. I just read a brand new Mikey/Klunk story from MIRAGE PUBLISHING. It's from the new Tales of the TMNT #9. It's really sad, but it has inspired me to come up with a sequel to it. It's still in the works though, so don't expect it up too quickly. I plan to finish this story before I start another anyway. For now, enjoy this next chapter of "Away From Myself."

As a last note, I did a little research on the spirit balls that appear in my story. Believe it or not, there is a lot to be found about these orbs. Here is just a little of what I discovered: They are most widely known as spectral orbs and are the most common form that sprits take. These orbs are believed to be the spirit energy that remains of living creatures, while others see these orbs as the forms that spirits take to travel at faster speeds. One theory is that these balls are the residual energy left behind by a spirit as it passes from one plane to the next. Residual energy is like the life energy of living creatures. As we travel through the world, we leave trails of this energy, much like how we leave behind scent trails. When we die, we release energy. In what form this energy is released, we have yet to explain. However, these orbs could be one possible explanation. More study and observation has been done on these orbs than one would think. This is most likely because people encounter these orbs far more often than actual ghosts. Usually, the naked eye can't see them, but they show up in pictures, as well as on video cameras. They can range from the size of a fist to about the size of a human head. They have been found to be intelligent and have even interacted with the living on several occasions. Some believe that an orb's color is a reflection of the orb's mood, while others report that colored orbs indicate active surroundings. The reason behind the colors of the orbs in my story will become apparent very soon. Whether or not these orbs truly exist is still up in the air. Certainly the amount of documented evidence would be enough to convince most people, but skeptics are never difficult to find in the paranormal or mystical fields. Still, they are something interesting to learn about. I really like the idea that these things might actually be real, which is one of the reasons why I decided to do a story that featured them. I am still not sure if I believe in ghosts or these orbs, and I'm not saying that anyone should or should not believe. That's all up to you. But, as the host of Animal X always says, "There are stranger things on heaven and earth. And you've just seen one of them." With that said, on with the story!

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Chapter 3-Where Are We?

Leonardo was still confused about where his master would be taking him. It was obviously a place he had never been before, and though he preferred more familiar surroundings, going to somewhere new was always exciting for him.

He followed his sensei as the two drifted slowly up to the ceiling and passed right through it. Leo was expecting to feel the effect of passing through a solid wall, but instead all he felt was a slight tingling. He watched as they sailed through the brick, going up and up and up, through other parts of the upper levels of the sewers. Soon, the two orbs had found their way to the streets above. Making a quick turn to the right, Splinter hovered past the cars and people below. Based on his direct approach to travel, Splinter seemed to know exactly where he was going.

After emerging onto the surface, Leo stopped and stared at the rest of the city. Slightly concerned, he caught up with Splinter and asked, "Sensei, why are he traveling out here? Aren't you worried that people will see us?"

"Worry is not something to be concerned with my son. People can only see us if we allow them to. As spirits we have that option."

"You mean, we're invisible?"

"To the amateur eye, perhaps, but to the trained, we are quite visible."

"What do you mean?"

The white ball stopped and turned towards its companion. "So many questions Leonardo. You are so concerned with what may happen, that you fail to observe what is occurring right in front of your eyes." The orb twisted its body downwards.

Leo followed its action and set his gaze upon the ground below. As he looked, he discovered that his master was indeed right. All about him, the people of New York City moved about their lives without a single concern for the two spirits that were hovering just about them. Leo realized that no one could actually see them. The blue orb was suddenly overcome with an enormous amount of freedom. For the first time in his life, Leo realized he could wander through the surface world without being seen, quite literally. The turtle suddenly thought, 'I could go anywhere I wanted to right now and not find myself in any danger. I could wander allover this city, going to all the places I've always wanted to go, and seeing all the things I've always dreamed of seeing, and never have to care at all.' Leo's mind soon began to fill with all the possibilities.

Splinter, however, sensed his son's sudden change in attitude. He recognized what his son was suddenly feeling and thinking at the moment. "Aw, I see that you have discovered the freedom of being a soul my son," he said.

"Yes, sensei, and if I may say so, I think I'm starting to enjoy it."

"Well, that may be so, Leonardo, but you must not forget why you are a spirit right now."

Leo's daydreaming died away instantly. He turned to his father. "Oh, yeah. I guess I did forget that for a moment there." Leo's embarrassment did little to hide his curiosity though. "But that leads me to a question that I've been meaning to ask sensei. Why exactly are you teaching me all this? Is there a greater purpose to learning the mystic arts? Did you teach me astral projection just so I could get out and be among the rest of the world, or is it something more?"

Splinter couldn't help but be proud of his pupil. Leonardo was a very quick learner and could catch even the most subtle hints of a lesson. "You are beginning to learn, Leonardo. Yes, you are correct in assuming my intentions. I did not teach you how to free your soul for entertainment purposes alone. No, you are here to be taught lessons that I myself, cannot teach. As I stated earlier, you will learn from others who have more to teach than I ever could, as well as more practice in the mystic arts themselves."

"That's right; you did mention that I'd be getting to meet other teachers. But, where are they sensei? Are they here in the city somewhere?"

"No, my son. They are present in another world-one we have to journey to."

"Journey to? How far are we going to have to go sensei?"

"For those who have never made the trip before, the path always seems long. The way is also filled with things I normally do not wish to see. But unfortunately, it is the only way I know to reach the place where we are to go." The blue orb's hover did a slight twitch at the rat's last comment. "But you need not fear, my son. I shall not allow any harm to come to you, I promise. You only need to follow me. Now, shall we going?"

Knowing that there really was no choice in the matter, Leo answered, "I suppose so."

"Good, then come."

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The two began to slowly float up through the sky, going higher and higher, as the sun seemed to get closer and closer. From listening to Don on more occasions that Leo could remember, the blue orb knew that sooner or later they would reach the upper atmosphere. The soul began to wonder if being a spirit meant that he could travel in space as well. However, as Leo looked ahead, he realized that they weren't heading for outer space at all. Instead, the sun began to melt into a white light. Leo looked down and saw the light beginning to consume the air around them. For a second, he felt a shimmer of terror run through him, but he calmed himself by gazing back up the white orb that he was following. 'Just follow Master Splinter,' he thought. 'He knows where he is going. And he promised he wouldn't let anything bad happen.' With these comforting thoughts, Leo soared onward.

The world, Leo watched, was suddenly becoming darker. "Sensei, where are we now?" asked the turtle. The light from the sun was starting to dissolve into blackness.

"We are passing through dimensions my son. I must warn you, the images of the worlds ahead are not the most pleasant to be viewed. But you must keep your wits. But above all else, Leonardo, we must not lose one another. It would only put more difficulties on our journey if you were to get lost. So please, stay close to me."

Leo had heard warnings from Master Splinter before, but none as serious as this one came out to be. He couldn't help but give a small gulp. 'Somehow, I don't think I'm going to like what I may end up seeing,' he thought.

As the darkness began to consume them, shadowy figures slowly emerged. These monstrous, hopeless souls howled in horrid pain and suffering, as the two orbs flew past them. They reached their shaded elongated fingers to extended limits as they groped and grabbed for Leo and Splinter. Leo gave off a whispered yelp and moved closer to his master.

"Do not look at them, my son. These are the spirits of those with no hope. They play about in endless agony, dancing and screeching with songs of loss. They try to draw all who dare travel through this dimension to join them in their bleak sensations. But we are stronger than they are. Just keep moving and do not look back."

Leonardo listened with care to Splinter's words, feeling a sense of calm returning to him once more. He realized that he was letting his emotions take over, so he tried to gain control of them once more as the two left the souls of the anguished behind.

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The world began to change again. Suddenly, the darkness pulled away, and the orbs were immersed in a watery sort of fluid. Leo tried to take a deep breath and was startled when he couldn't. He looked around madly, but jerked up when Splinter suddenly chuckled. He chocked his spherical body in confusion.

"You do not have to hold your breath my son. As a spirit, breath no longer enters, nor escapes your body. Remember, souls are eternal and therefore, do not require such necessities are breathing."

Interested, Leo decided to experiment with Splinter's explanation. As best as he could, he tried to take a deep breath, but was amazed when air refused to enter his mouth. He tried to breathe out, but once more, no breath came. Sure enough, he could not exhale or inhale. "Wow, sensei. You were right," he said. "This is kinda cool. It's like I'm dead, but I don't feel dead."

Splinter chuckled again. "Yes, it is an exhilarating feeling. But come, let us continue onward. We have yet to reach our destination."

Leo had been so occupied with his newfound ability, or rather loss of ability, that he had nearly forgotten about their journey. Splinter was already hovering away. Remembering his father's earlier warning about staying close, he quickly rushed to catch up with him.

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They were certainly in a new dimension now. This mysterious setting was filled with the most mind-boggling living things that could ever have been created. It was filled with creatures that challenged the very definition of life itself. These abominations were like nothing Leo had ever witnessed. They floated past brains that walked and eyes that bled. Past demonic things that defied belief. As they drifted, they passed worlds so small, they could fit in the palm of your hand, and mountains so large, they had no end.

Leo started to drift as his eyes rolled over his unfamiliar environment. Seeing his son beginning to stall, he called, "Leonardo, focus now!"

Leo snapped out of his gaze. "Huh? What?"

"Leonardo, you must not get distracted. These worlds may be fascinating, but you must not let your attention be controlled by the sights before you."

Leo sighed. "I'm sorry Master Splinter. It's just, I'm a bit tired and all these…" He motioned about him. "These…things, are so…so astounding. It's like they literally capture your attention and hold it prisoner or something."

Now it was the white orb's time to sigh. "Huh, my son. I feared that this may occur."

"Feared what, sensei?"

"My son, you cannot let fear and exhaustion defeat you. If you allow that to happen, dire consequences could result. Such a drastic change could force the physical body you left behind to go into shock. If that occurs, you might never wake up. Your soul would be stuck here, forced to wander in unknown territories for longer than any soul should have to endure."

Leo gasped. "Sensei, I never knew something like that could happen."

"I'm afraid it is true my son. But, as I have taught you before, if you focus your mind, you can clear it of all distractions, even ones as vile as those that lie around us."

Leo didn't know what to say. Fear once more tried to devour him, yet he had listened to Splinter's speech and was now well aware of the consequences of letting his emotions drive his actions. (He was always the most willing to follow Splinter's orders anyway.) Normally, he would have taken a deep breath and calmed himself with a nice long session of meditation. But circumstances were different this time. For once, he was unsure of what he should do. "What can I do Master Splinter? How do you combat your own feelings? How do you hide them so they won't control you?"

"Practice my son," was all the white ball said. It turned and continued on. Leo watched as the orb started to float away once more. He wanted to look back. Something inside him was urging him to. But his newfound knowledge of the unexpected allowed him to resist the urge. The blue orb gathered up what strength it had left and once more chased after the white ball that was wandering away.

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Author's Note: I'll bet you guys are really getting anxious about where our spirit heroes are going. Don't worry, I promise to reveal their final destination in the next chapter. Please no one scorn me. I've heard that good suspense can really lighten up a story. Review and let me know what you guys think. If you're unhappy, don't chastise me too bad. But if you like what you're reading, tell me. That way, I can continue writing with some pride in my work. Oh and for all the fans of Mikey, Don, and Raph out there, please do not get mad at me. Leo's brothers will be coming back into the picture in my future chapters. Trust me, I am far from the completion of this story. I don't even a true ending thought up yet. I'm kinda playing this by ear, letting the story grow and evolve as I write it from chapter to chapter. However, I am not completely in the dark with this. I do have a basic plan for the action laid out in my head, but we'll just have to see exactly where it leads. I have a strong feeling that the final product will be somewhat different from what had I originally thought of. Anyway, I'd like to write the next chapter soon. I have another new character that I'd like to try out. But you guys will just have to wait until I can get the next chapter posted. Ok, that's enough commentary for now. I'm keeping my fans from their reviews. Just ignore these last lines and push the "submit a review" button. I don't have anything interesting left to type anyway. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm off to have fun and enjoy prom. Take care, and as always, GOD BLESS:)


	4. The Teaching Begins

Disclaimer: Never will I own the turtles or Splinter. Life can be so depressing sometimes. Boo-hoo… But I do own character of Mao-Shi. I combined his name from a bunch of others that are in a book I am reading on Chinese generals back in ancient times. I thought it sounded cool, so I used it.

Author's Note: Once more, life has prevented me from updating as quickly as I wanted to. (That and the fact that I've had severe writer's block for the past week.) Along with homework, I've been having some computer problems. I couldn't access the site or log in for a time, therefore, I couldn't update. But now I'm back, and with some new stuff. Not only have I posted another chapter for this story, but I've added a brand-new one-shot story. It originated from an idea that wouldn't quite bugging me and that I knew I just had to get written. I also am currently working on another Klunk/Mikey story called "As One Departs…" To get everyone interested, it has a major plot twist. Some may call it a sequel to my other Klunk story, but I consider more to be just one of those random events in the turtles' lives. Except this one has a more substantial effect on the guys than most other occurrences. It isn't finished yet, but what I have so far is really looking good. I hope to have it up soon. Anyway, I apologize if the wait was a bit too much for anyone to bear. I hope you're all still ok out there. I had a great time at prom. So much happened, that I've decided to talk about it at the end of this chapter. That way, if anyone doesn't want to read about what happened at prom, they won't have to. They can just skip right to the story and won't have to read my long prom note at the end. I hope my loyal readers enjoy this update as well as my other new short stories. One last thing, thank you to the people who reviewed my last chapter. I'm not sure why so few readers left reviews for Chapter 3; I'm hoping that I'll see more for this chapter. I'm praying that this doesn't mean that you guys aren't interested in reading my story anymore. If that's so, then maybe I ought to quit while I'm ahead. I don't want to leave this story unfinished, but if no one's there to read it, what good is it? Please prove me wrong by leaving me tons of reviews. I do read them and appreciate them greatly. Muchas gracias to all of you who did leave me some feedback last chapter:

**_Chibi Rose Angel: _**I think your review holds the record for the longest review to ever be addressed to me. And I loved every word of it. You're so generous. Thank you for all your kind words. You seemed quite excited that is was my senior prom. (We don't have junior proms, but lowerclassmen are allowed to come if they get invited by a senior.) If you want, you can read all about it at the end of this chapter. Anyway, if you've been inspired to write a story based on mine, I would consider that quite an honor. I've never inspired anybody before. Have no fear, Leo's bros will be getting more involved in this story soon, but you'll have to wait and see whether or not they find out what Leo and Master Splinter are up to. I can't wait for my graduation. See ya!

**_spootycup:_** It's been prolonged, but here's the next chapter. And I had a great time at prom. I'm glad you like the story so far.

**_pacphys: _**Don't worry; Splinter will be answering his questions in this chapter. Everyone will finally see where he has been leading Leonardo and who these mysterious friends of his are. And you don't have to leave me any comments about space. As souls, Leo and Splinter are able to defy a lot of the physical laws of nature. It's just one of the privileges of being in the world of the mystic. As a heads up, you'll be seeing more of it, so try to read this chapter with an open mind. A little bit of imagination always makes things more interesting.

**_Pi90katana:_** Thanks for the compliment. I'll be having more description in this chapter too.

And now, my long awaited update! Take care and, as always, GOD BLESS!

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Chapter 4-The Teaching Begins…

The darkness suddenly opened up into a bright, white light. Leonardo squinted his eyes to block out the blinding light, but was greeted with a most gorgeous sight once he opened them back up. He and Splinter had now entered into yet another world. But this one was different from the other horrid worlds that the two had passed through. This one was sunny and warm, rather than dark and unforgiving. It was inviting, with no sign of demonic creatures or sights so unpleasant, you wished you had never laid eyes on them before. No, this world was filled with a different kind of aura. Leo could think of only one word to describe the change: peaceful. Yes, that was what it was. This new world was quiet; the others were chaotic and restless. 'This world would make the perfect place to meditate,' thought Leo.

He followed Splinter's white aura trail as the two flew gently through the airy blue sky, with the sun beating down kindly on their backs. Leo looked down and realized that they were flying over a huge field of sunflowers. The flowers were enormous, their faces cast gratefully up to the sun as they sought out its life generating rays. Leo wondered if he could actually lie on them; they were so large. And the blooms looked so tempting too. He started to drift down towards the sunflowers.

Splinter had been gliding along peacefully when he spotted Leo starting to drift towards the sunflowers. "My son, where are you going?" he asked.

"To see if I can lie on the sunflowers sensei. They're so huge, I'd like to see if they can support me."

Leo floated near the sunflowers with Splinter trailing behind. The blue orb observed one of the sunflower blossoms and started to rest his spherical body on it. Just then, one of the sunflowers snapped its head up. It stretched its stem out until it was towering high above Leo and Splinter.

Leo and Splinter stared in complete shock up at the raised plant. "Master Splinter, what is going on!" yelled Leo.

"I am not sure my son!" answered Splinter.

If flowers could have had emotions, then this one looked awfully angry. It tilted its blossom back and rose even higher into the sky. It soon loomed over the two souls.

"What do you do now sensei?" asked Leo.

"We float away cautiously my son, being careful not to startle it." Leo followed Splinter's example as the two slowly drifted backwards away from the angry sunflower. Suddenly, the sunflower lurched back and, of all things, began to fire its seeds at the orbs. "Look out!" cried Splinter. The two souls took off in different directions.

Unfortunately for Leo, the sunflower seemed to like him more. Instead of following after Splinter, it turned and fired more of its seeds at him. It stretched its long stem as it gave chase to the small, blue orb. "Ok, it's official; I no longer like sunflower seeds!" Leo yelled. "Aw!" He dodged seed after seed as he flew as fast as he could away from the homicidal flower. He was just starting to wonder how he was going to get out of this one when the flower's stem reached its maximum stretch capacity. It halted in midair, and then fell limp among the other sunflowers. Leo stopped and turned, searching for his previous chaser. However, the flower had mysteriously vanished in the field of look-alike plants. "Ok, that was weird," he said.

Splinter had been relentlessly trailing the sunflower as it had chased Leonardo. Seeing the flower's sudden disappearance, he rushed over to Leo. "My son, are you alright?" cried Splinter.

"I'm…I'm ok sensei. Just a little shook up, and a bit confused too."

"What do you mean my son?"

"Well, I know we're in the realm of the mystic and that lots of things are different here than back on earth, but can sunflowers really attack you for no reason?"

"Hmmm…the last time I visited this realm, they could not." The rat glanced down at the flowers. "However, there was one way…"

Curious, Leo looked down at the flowers as well. As he stared, he began to notice a slight ruffling in the flowers. Then, a soft rumble could be heard. It began to get louder and louder, until a hand suddenly burst from the flowers and grabbed the orbs from where they were hovering in the air.

The owner of the hand held the souls tightly and didn't seem the least bit started when a parade of tiny rats came crawling out of their hand. The rats collected together in the air, forming Splinter's white spherical soul once more. "What is the meaning of…this?" he asked.

Leo could barely stand being kept so tightly compacted in such a small space. 'This hand must belong to a very strong person,' he thought. He had watched as his sensei had suddenly disappeared beside him, only to have a plethora of small rats assume the space where he once was and crawl out of the hand. 'How did Master Splinter do that?' he wondered. All of a sudden, Leo heard voices. He heard his sensei ask what the reason for this unexpected attack was and was started when his sensei stalled at the end of his question. Leo was even more surprised when another voice answered his sensei.

"Well Splinter-san, I was curious to see if you could still react on a second's notice. I see that you are still just as skilled as ever."

Leo listened closely as his father spoke back to the voice. "Yes, I have made a unique effort to keep my skills in the mystic realm as sharp as they have been in previous years."

"I see," returned the voice.

'Who could Master Splinter possibly be talking to?' thought Leo. 'Obviously, he must be a friend of sensei's, or otherwise they wouldn't be speaking like this.' Leo decided that if Splinter was familiar with the voice, then maybe he could persuade the owner of the hand to let him go. "Uh, excuse me?" the blue orb called. "I don't mean any disrespect, but would if be possible if you could release me? It's getting awfully cramped in here."

The voice must have heard him because the hand began to relax and open. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" asked the voice. "A little blue orb? I hope it is not a lost soul is it?"

"No, no," called Splinter. He hovered down to where Leo lay in his friend's hand. "This is my son, Leonardo." Leo looked at his master as he hovered next to him. "Leonardo, this is my good friend, Master Mao-Shi."

Leo looked up at his sensei's friend. The man's face was old and wrinkled, obviously the face of one who has much wisdom, but little life left. "So you're the one who grabbed us earlier?" he asked.

"Yes I am, little one," returned Mao-Shi.

The man lifted his hand up and gently let Leo slid back into the air. As he stood up, Leo began to get a clearer picture of who this old man was. He wore a traditional Japanese kimono that was torn in several places and looked quite worn. It was a dark navy blue, with faded red strips that ran along its edges. The fabric had obviously seen better days. Leo saw that he carried a sheathe in his belt that held a sword. As for the Master himself, he was quite elderly; he had more wrinkles than a Shar Pei. But his eyes were the brightest of blue that Leo had ever seen. "Wow…" was all the young turtle could say.

"I see you are quite impressed by me young one," said Mao-Shi.

Mao-Shi's booming voice snapped Leo out of his gaze. "What? Oh, yeah, I guess I am. It's just, you're so big."

"Well, to a fist size orb like you, I suppose I am," replied Mao-Shi.

"I was just bringing Leonardo to meet you Master Shi when you took us by surprise," said Splinter.

"I apologize if I started either of you too much," Mao-Shi returned.

"It's ok," said Leo. "I was more surprised than scared anyway." He turned and began to address Master Splinter. "I'm just curious about one thing though."

"What is it Leonardo?" the rodent asked.

"How were you able to turn into all of those tiny rats sensei?"

"Control Leonardo-that is how the true power of the mystic realm is unleashed. But come, let us sit and then all questions shall be answered."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," said Master Shi. "You do not know how long I have been waiting to meet one of your sons Splinter-san. You have told me so much about them."

Leonardo was quite surprised to hear this. "You have sensei?"

"Well, I do not like to boast, but my family does make a wonderful subject during a conversation," answered Splinter.

The souls moved out of the sunflower field and found a small clearing next to a forest. Mao-Shi lowered himself on to the grass as a light breeze began to pick up. Leo and Splinter were still floating in the air when Splinter began to hover closer to the ground. Leo watched as the white orb suddenly disappeared in the blink of an eye and was replaced with the full profile image of Master Splinter. The rat settled himself on the soft grass.

"Come Leonardo," said Splinter as he patted the ground. "Join us on the grass."

Leo hesitated for a second. He wasn't quite sure if he remembered how to transform out of his orb form. But then he recalled all of those long sessions in his sensei's room where he had practiced doing just that. 'Oh yeah, I know how to do that,' he thought. With newly restored confidence, he drifted closer to the ground and, remembering just how to focus his concentration, broke his orb body and allowed his full form to rest on the grass next to Splinter and Mao-Shi.

"So this is what your pupil Leonardo truly looks like. I must say, Master Splinter, he is quite handsome," Mao-Shi complimented. Leo couldn't help but blush. He secretly prayed that his green tinted skin would hide his red cheeks. "And he seems quite skilled for someone so young."

"Yes. Leonardo is a very fast learner," Splinter responded. "Already, he has mastered the most basic skills of traveling through the mystic world. Though I have not told him, I am quite impressed by him." Leo felt his cheeks turn an even darker shade of red.

"Inquisitive and a fast learner. He reminds me of myself when I was young," said Mao-Shi. "But that was a long time ago. I may not have my life anymore, but I can still recognize great potential when I see it."

Mao-Shi's last statement caught Leo's attention. "Wait, did you say 'when you had your life?'" he asked.

"Yes," said Mao-Shi.

"Then doesn't that mean that you're…"

"Dead?"

"Uh…" All Leo could do was nod his head.

"I am afraid that you are correct Leonardo. My body has been gone for quite some time, but here, my soul is free to wander as it pleases for all eternity. In a way, it is like my heaven. But at the same time, I am not bound to it."

"Oh, I'm sorry," whispered the turtle.

"Do not be young one," said Mao-Shi. "I enjoyed my life while I had it, and now that it is over, I can spend the rest of time in peace."

Leo lowered his head in thought.

Splinter looked at his pupil. He noticed a slightly sadden face on him. He put a hand on Leo's shoulder, as a small tear rolled down the reptile's face. "Are you alright my son?" he asked.

Leo lifted his head up. "Yes sensei," sniffed Leo. "I…I think I understand now." He rubbed his eyes as he continued. "This world is like a bridge between earth and heaven. It is a place where the souls of both the living and the dead can converse together, yet be at peace at the same time. It's a place where they can enjoy each other's company and forget about the realities of life and death."

"You are correct. Very good Leonardo," said Splinter.

Mao-Shi turned to Splinter. "My friend, I believe you were being too modest when you told me about your sons. You have obviously taught them very well. I would say that this one has the best intellectual skills of someone this young that I have ever had the pleasure to meet."

Leo felt his cheeks go red once more. As Splinter and Mao-Shi drifted into a small conversation, he began to observe his surroundings. 'The mystic realm is quite beautiful,' he thought. The forest trees were clustered together quite well, yet the appearance of abundant space reverberated all over their rich, verdant leaves and chocolate speckled bark. The sky was baby blue, while wisps of lazy clouds floated gently through the light breeze. The grass was so smooth and tender that Leo felt he could fall asleep in its comforting grasp. He laid back and closed his eyes as the sunflowers licked his face. 'I think I'd rather have these things sway in the wind than fire seed missiles at me,' thought Leo. He couldn't help but chuckle at his own joke.

Leo was just about to fall into a deep sleep, when a lingering question resurfaced in his mind. He opened his eyes and sat up. "Master Splinter?" he asked.

Splinter and Mao-Shi had also been enjoying the scenery when they heard Leo's voice. Splinter turned when he heard his name being called. "Yes my son?"

"I almost forgot to ask. You never said how you were able to turn into all of those little rats before. You promised that you would explain it once we sat down."

"Ah, you are right Leonardo. I did promise that, and I never break a promise." The rat got to his feet. "Well, I believe that sometimes the best way to explain things is to show them directly to you and then teach you how to perform them for yourself." The rat stepped off the grass and on to a trail of dirt at the base of the forest. "Come here Leonardo. I think it is time we move to the next step of the mystic arts-shape shifting and control of the elements." Leo got up and joined his sensei on the dirt. "Are you ready Leonardo?"

Leo and his master exchanged a bow. "Yes Master. I am ready to learn whatever you have to teach me."

"Good. Now, you already know how change into the most basic form of a spirit-the orb. Learning how to become other shapes is not any more difficult, it just requires a greater amount of concentration and focus. To become that which you are not, you must envision yourself as that object. You must feel that shape, whether it be a living creature…" Splinter suddenly changed into a lime green lizard with a pop. Leo stepped back startled. Then, Splinter returned to his original form and continued. "Or an element of nature…" As he had done to become the lizard, Splinter's soul melted into a puddle of water. The water shifted on the ground and made a semicircle about Leo. The puddle then moved in front of the turtle and molded itself back into the form of Splinter.

"Whoa," said Leo.

"Do not be too amazed Leonardo," said Splinter. "For soon, you will know how to do exercises such as those as well."

Leo thought for a moment. Whatever Splinter had just done seemed awfully hard, if not painful. "I'm not so sure I can learn how to do all that sensei," said Leo.

"Do not plague yourself with self-doubt young one," said Mao-Shi. The old soul walked over to Leo and put a steady hand on the turtle's shoulder.

"Master Shi?" wondered Leo.

Mao-Shi gave him a warm smile. "I can see that you are more capable than you give yourself credit for Leonardo. Do not concentrate on what you believe you cannot do. Focus on what you can do and you will be able to learn anything."

"You really think I can?" asked Leo. Mao-Shi nodded his head. "But there's so much to learn about the mystic arts. I've only just gotten started. I hardly know anything right now."

"And that is why we are here Leonardo," said Master Splinter. "To teach you what we know so that the mystic arts can be passed on to others, who in turn, will one day be able to teach the same skills to even more pupils. But one of the first rules of learning the mystic arts is to never forget that everyone, even the most skilled masters, were once novices. Everyone begins with an empty plate. It is only through teachings and practice, that that plate becomes full. Leonardo, your plate will fill up, you just have to be patience with yourself and give it time."

Leo sighed. "You're right, sensei. I'm getting ahead of myself. I guess there just seems to be so much that I can learn, that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed."

"Do not worry Leonardo. Once we get started, it will not seem to be so much," said Splinter.

"Ok Master Splinter." Leo looked up at Mao-Shi and then back at his father. "I think I'm ready now."

"Fine. I think we will start shape changing, and then move on to control of the elements. We will begin with something simple-a more simplified version of ourselves." Leo's face was plastered with a look of confusion. "Or, to explain it more easily, you will be learning how to change into a normal sized turtle."

"Oh," said Leo.

"I myself prefer rats, but the concept is quite similar. First, concentrate on what it feels like to be smaller, to be, as you and your brothers put it, "normal." What do you think it would feel like if you were still a regular turtle? Once you believe you have that feeling in your mind, transfer that feeling to your body. Allow that feeling to encompass your soul, then release it and you will change. Now, watch me, and follow my example." Leo stared as Splinter closed his eyes. The rat was silent for a moment, and then Splinter's image disintegrated into the form of a normal, but much smaller, rat. The rodent looked up at Leo and spoke. "You see Leonardo. It is quite simple. Now you try. Remember, concentrate. Don't think, just feel."

Leo tried. He pictured himself and his brothers in his head. He saw them as normal sized, non-mutated turtles, all walking around in a glass cage. He concentrated harder. He saw himself on all fours, slowly maneuvering on the ground. His shell was heavy and his body smaller. Once Leo was sure the feeling had coated his mind, he let it flow throughout his body. He could feel his arms and legs begin to shrink as his plastron got closer and closer to the ground. Leo was concentrating so hard that he almost didn't hear Splinter's voice calling him.

"Leonardo? Leonardo? Open your eyes my son."

Leo did as he was told. But he gasped at his sudden point of view change. He gazed towards the ground and was shocked to find it much closer than he ever remembered. He looked at his body and found short legs and a much heavier shell. 'So this is how the world looked when I was baby,' he thought.

Mao-Shi bent down towards the turtle. "So Leonardo, how does your first shape shifting experience feel?" he asked.

"Strange," Leo answered. "And yet, somewhat familiar too. Like some long forgotten memory that I didn't even know I still had."

Splinter chuckled. "I felt the same way when I first learned shape shifting. I had forgotten what it was like to be a normal rat, but at the same time I felt free, like I had awakened a portion of myself that had long remained dormant."

"That's sort of how I feel sensei," answered Leo. "But, I'm not sure if I feel completely free. In a way, I actually think I'm more constricted now. I mean, I can't move very well or very fast for that matter."

"Then perhaps it best that we return to our regular forms and try another shape," said Splinter.

"Yeah, I think I'd like that," said Leo.

"Concentrate then my son. Let your normal form fulfill your mind as your body returns to its regular state. Allow that familiar feeling to take hold and then you will change once more." Leo watched as Splinter reverted back into his normal state of being. "Now my son, join us as you once were."

"Ok, I can do this," Leo whispered to himself. He concentrated on changing back; his familiar muscles and upright shape becoming a reality once more. Soon, Leonardo was in his normal form as well.

Splinter clapped his hands. "Wonderful my son. You have successfully completed your first transformation," said Splinter.

"Wow, I can't believe I actually did it!" exclaimed Leo.

"I am very proud of you Leonardo," said Splinter.

"I must say, I am quite impressed," said Mao-Shi.

"Thank-you sensei. Thank-you Master Shi," said Leo as he took a bow towards his master and his newly acquainted friend. "Now that I know I can actually do this, I can't wait to try out other shapes and forms."

"I am afraid that will have to wait for another time Leonardo," said Splinter.

"What do you mean sensei? Can't we practice some more? Why do we have to stop?"

"Because Leonardo. We need to be getting on home. Do not forget. Our bodies are still sitting in my room, and, as I have warned of before, it would be quite dangerous if we spent too much time away from them."

"Aw, but I was hoping I'd get to practice some more," said Leo.

The rat laughed good-naturally. "Do not worry so Leonardo. We will come back tomorrow and practice some more. And once you have mastered all that I have to teach you, Mao-Shi will be able to educate you in all that he knows."

"Your master is right Leonardo," said Mao-Shi. "I learned much during my lifetime and I would consider it a great honor to pass on my knowledge to someone with so much potential." He bowed towards Leo.

"Thank-you Master Shi," said Leo. He too took bowed at Master Shi. "I would also be honored if I had you for a teacher."

"Until then, Leonardo, I will be waiting."

"Come Leonardo," said Splinter. "We must be going home. I do not want the others to start worrying about us."

"Ok Master Splinter," said Leo.

He followed his master back over to the patch of grass. Getting a running start, Splinter jumped into the air. Without a moment's notice, he changed back into a white orb. He drifted a couple feet into the air and turned around. "Are you coming Leonardo?" he asked.

"Just a minute sensei," called Leo. He looked back at Mao-Shi. "Master Shi, it was real honor getting to meet you. I hope to see you again soon."

"I feel the same way young one. And I believe that will see one another very soon indeed," Mao-Shi assured Leo. "I am looking forward to having you as a student."

"As am I," answered Leo. He bowed once more to the weary soul and turned towards the sunflowers. He sprinted a few steps and leapt into the air. As Splinter had done, he gracefully shifted into his royal blue orb form.

"Until we meet again Leonardo!" waved Mao-Shi. "Good-bye!"

"Good-bye Master Shi!" returned Leo.

Mao-Shi bellowed a good-bye to Splinter. "Farewell Splinter-san! It was wonderful to see you once more!"

"And I you, old friend! I hope to you see you soon as well!" yelled Splinter.

With that, the two souls turned towards the sky and headed for home.

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Leo thought that it was must be really late once he and Splinter finally returned to the rat's room. As they drifted through the ceiling, an apparent warmth overtook the blue orb. He could feel his body pulling him, dragging him in an overwhelming urge to reconnect with its missing owner. He barely had any time to look over at his sensei, when he was sucked back into his own body and reconnected with the living world.

The first thing Leo felt was cold; a desperate and unnerving cold, like his body had been frozen in an ice box or something for months on end. He tried to move, to open his eyes, but he couldn't get any response from his nerves. For some reason, they didn't want to respond. 'I hope something didn't go wrong while Master Splinter and I were gone,' he thought. Fear began to grip Leo's mind, while a feeling of panic started to grow in the blue-clad turtle's gut. But the warmth of the lair slowly returned and soon, Leo could feel his fingers and toes once more. The comforting sensation soon spread throughout his body, from his arms and legs, all the way to the back of his shell. 'That's better,' thought Leo. 'At least I know I'm not actually dead.' The young mutant soon became aware of a voice that was calling his name. He concentrated on the voice, listening closely as it became clearer with each breath.

"Leonardo? Can you hear me Leonardo?"

"Yes sensei," whispered Leo. "I can."

But the voice apparently did not catch Leo's shallow response. "If you can hear me, then open your eyes. Let me know that you are in your body once more and no longer a spirit."

Leo knew from the voice's tone that his master was worried about him. Though Leo could feel his physical body once more, he obviously hadn't made any notion to try and move it yet. Leo had been stuck in his mind the whole time. But now, he knew he had to break out of his deep concentration and completely return to the physical plane.

"Leonardo, please, are you still with me?" called Splinter.

"I am here Master Splinter," said Leo. The turtle cautiously opened his eyes; they felt like one hundred pound weights, they were so heavy. "I'm back. I didn't go anywhere…" He stared into his master's comforting gaze. After opening his eyes, Leo began to stretch his rigid muscles. "How long were we sitting here sensei? I think my whole body's gone stiff."

Splinter was relieved to see his son stir. When he had awakened back in his body, he saw that Leo had not moved yet. The father of four had grown worried that Leo's soul might have gotten misplaced somehow and that his son had not reclaimed his body. But now, all fears of that were gone. "A stiff body is a common symptom of an initial spiritual outing my son. But it will get easier to enter and exit the body once you have practiced long term astral projection on a greater scale."

"Oh. I'm curious though. How long were we gone for?"

"I am not sure Leonardo. But let us find out," returned the rat. He stood up and helped Leonardo get to his feet. The two walked to the entrance of Splinter's room and opened the sliding door.

Leo was expecting the lair to be completely dark. Instead, the kitchen light was on, and a glow from the living room area indicated that the TV's were on as well. The eldest turtle looked around and discovered that not only was some of the family still awake, but their leisurely attitude showed that they probably hadn't even noticed that Leo and Splinter had been gone.

As Leo was looking around, Splinter turned and headed for the kitchen. "If you will excuse me Leonardo, I think I am in the mood for some herbal tea."

"Ok sensei," said Leo. He watched the rat disappear inside the kitchen and turned and walked over to the television space. Mikey was stapled to his usual spot in front of the TV's when Leo approached. "Hey Mikey! Miss me?"

Mike looked up from the television screens. "Leo! Hey bro! How did meditatin' with Splinter go?"

"Oh fine, fine." Leo came around the couch and sat down on a stool. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you guys were in there for eight hours straight. I checked in on you two once and you guys looked alright. I just wanted to make sure everything was ok."

'Eight hours!' Leo's thoughts were racing. 'We were gone for eight hours! I can't believe that! It seemed like we only were gone for a couple of hours, let alone eight!'

Leo's mind was pulled back to reality by Mike's voice. "Leo, you ok bro?"

Quickly sensing his brother's concern, Leo put on a fake smile. "Yeah, Mike, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired. I guess I didn't realize how long Splinter and I were out of it."

"I'll say. I asked Donnie if he knew how long somebody could meditate, but he didn't know. At first, I was kinda worried, but I know how much you and sensei like to meditate, so I didn't try and wake you up."

'Good thing too Mike, because there wouldn't have been anybody there to greet you,' thought Leo. "Uh, yeah," said the turtle in blue. "Thanks Mikey. Sorry if we worried you. Splinter and I were just practicing how to remain at peace for long periods of time. You know, to help you keep calm in case you're stuck somewhere unpleasant for awhile." Leo knew he wasn't telling Michelangelo the whole truth, but he wasn't solely lying to his younger brother either. Splinter was indeed showing him how to be at peace with oneself, just in a slightly different way than normally expected.

Mikey, however, was buying the twisted truth completely. "Oh, well I guess that makes sense. You know a whole lot more about that meditation stuff than I do anyways Leo. Personally, I don't know how you stand it. Being quiet and still for so long; that kind of thing would kill me if I had to do it."

"Well, some are better at it than others Mike," said Leo.

"Yeah, you're right, and I'll freely admit that I ain't one of them." The orange-banned turtle turned back to the TV's.

With a sigh, Leo got up from the stool he had been sitting on. Splinter was just exiting the kitchen with a cup full of hot tea. "You look tired my son," he said.

"Yes Master Splinter. I think I'm going to go to bed."

"Aw, I would recommend that as well my son. I think I will be turning in too after I have finished my tea."

"Good-night sensei," said Leo.

"Good-night Leonardo," said Splinter. The rat walked to his room. He blew on his tea, as he closed the sliding door.

Leo couldn't help but let a yawn escape his mouth. He stretched and climbed the steps to the second floor. "Don't stay up too late Mike," he called to his younger brother.

"Leo, it's only seven!"

"Nevertheless, I know how you can be and I don't want to come out here in the middle of the night to find you still awake in front of the TV."

"Alright, alright. How about this? I'll go to bed when I get tired."

"For you Mikey, that can be at two in the morning."

"What if I make it eleven?" Mike flashed the most innocent and pleading puppy dog eyes he could at Leo. He knew his brother wouldn't be able to stand up to them.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Oh, alright Mikey. Eleven. But if I catch you up any later, I'm going to make you do twenty extra flips during practice tomorrow. And I won't care how tired you are."

"Ok, fine. You don't have to threaten me. I won't stay up past eleven. I promise."

"Good, now I'm going to bed. Good-night Mikey."

"'Night Leo."

Leo walked slowly to his room. His body was really starting to feel the strain of his soul's long absence. His legs felt like jelly, while his stomach was empty. Yet, he was too tired to go and fix anything. All Leo wanted to do right now was sleep. He'd take care of himself in the morning. On the way to his bed, Leo passed Raph's room. The turtle glanced in and was mildly surprised to find his red-clad sibling asleep in a hammock that Raph had put up years ago. 'I wonder why he's asleep at this hour,' thought Leo. 'Raph usually is out right now, not asleep. I gotta remember to ask somebody about that.' Leaving Raphael's snoring behind, Leo continued on to his room. But as he neared his door, he noticed a faint light coming from Don's room. 'What could Donnie possibly be up to now?' he thought. He paused and looked inside the cluttered space that Leo's brainy brother called both a room and a workshop. "Donnie, you still awake?" Leo called softly.

A muffled voice returned with a question. "Yeah, what is it?"

Leo stared harder into the room and spied the outline of Donatello in a chair hovered over a desk. The oldest terrapin made his way through the machinery on the floor, carefully finding his way over to Don. "Donnie, how can you live like this?" he asked.

Don still hadn't looked up from the wiring he was working on. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, all of this." Though he was gesturing about the room, Leo noticed that his brother wasn't really paying any attention to him. "Donatello, are you even listening to me?"

"Oh sure, Raph. But could you hand on a sec? I'm almost done with this."

"Donnie, I'm not Raph. The turtle you're mentioning is asleep in his room."

This got Don's attention. "Huh, then who am I…?" He turned around in his chair. "Oh, Leo! You're finally awake!"

"Awake?"

"Sorry, poor choice of words. It's just that you and Master Splinter have been-"

"I know, I know, meditating. Mikey already told me that sensei and I were doing that for eight hours."

"Well, yeah. You two were in Splinter's room for the entire day. I wasn't really worried. I mean, it's not like you guys haven't meditated for a long time before, so I just let it go. I think Mike once asked me about it earlier, but I can't quite remember." Don turned back to the wiring. "Of course, if you two hadn't come out by morning, I would have come in to check on you myself. But I guess I won't have to do that now."

"Hmmm, I see," said Leo. He glanced out the door. The sound of the TV could still be heard over Raph's faint snoring. "I actually came in here to see if you knew why Raph was in bed so early."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about him," said Donnie. "He and Casey were up a good portion of last night out roaming the streets. He was home this morning, but left around one. I think he got back somewhere around five. And I'm not sure when he fell asleep. My guess would be sometime after six thirty or so, not too long before you came in Leo."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about Raph's little misadventure," said Leo. 'Which really is the least I could say of myself,' he thought. "Well, if that's all, then I'm going to bed." He started for the door. "Oh, and I told Mike not to stay up too late and I'm telling you the same thing."

"Don't freak Leo. I was just going to finish the wiring on this circuit board and then I was planning on turning in for the night as well."

"Ok Don, but remember, eleven o'clock. No later. You know those late night workshops aren't good for you."

"I know, I know Leo. I promise, I won't stay up for too long."

"Thanks Donnie. Sometimes, I think you're the only other turtle who actually listens to me around here."

"Yeah, well I probably am," replied the purple-banned reptile.

Leo once more made a miraculous trip through the unknown structures that littered Don's room. 'Someday, I'm really going to have to bust down on Don's chops about cleaning this room,' thought Leo. 'Honestly, his room is as bad as Mikey's.' But Leo was feeling too faint to start that argument now. He managed to reach the room's entrance without any injury. "Good-night," he called from the door.

"Good-night," answered Don. "Pleasant dreams."

"You too Donnie. You too."

Satisfied that his short lecture had actually gotten through to his younger brother, Leonardo saddled his way down the hall and into his room. He took off his katanas and laid them on the stand he had set up specifically for them. He then plopped down his exhausted body on his bed. "A place to rest. Finally," he sighed. Leo shifted more comfortably on his bed and pulled the sheets and comforter over himself.

As sleep began to take hold, thoughts of the days ahead floated through Leo's head. 'I wonder when Splinter is going to let me tell Raph, Mike, and Don all about my astral projection lessons. I don't like keeping this big of a secret from them. I hope Master Splinter won't force me to hold on to it for too long. I'd really like to share this with the others. It would be cool if they could learn astral projection like me. Then we could all go to the mystic realm. In that beautiful place, I'm sure we could have some real fun.' Leo let out a huge yawn. 'I bet Mikey would have a blast with all the stuff he could learn how to do in the spirit world.' Leo could feel his consciousness slipping away. His last thought was, 'I wonder what Master Mao-Shi will be teaching me in the future…' And then, exhaustion overcame the turtle's mind.

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Author's Note 1: So, how was that chapter? It was a lot longer than all of my previous ones, so I'm happy for that. I hope it wasn't too disappointing though. I know how it feels when you've been waiting for something for a long time, and when it does finally come, you feel like you've been let down. I've felt this way before, and I don't want it to happen to any of my readers. You can be excited about my upcoming chapters, but don't let them be the only anticipation in your life. I hope that I'm not accidentally denouncing my own story, because that is certainly not my intent. Please read it and tell me what you guys think. I've tried to write it to the best of my ability, which revolves mostly around what I feel is best for the story. Besides, I'm sure the suspense has probably sent somebody into a coma by now. Anyway, leave me some reviews so I can know what you guys think. I'm not sure when I'll be starting on the next chapter, but I can leave one guarantee. The fifth chapter will a lot more of Don, Raph, and Mikey action, so none of you non-Leo or Splinter fans can come after me for not including them very much in my story. And now, for those of you who would prefer to skip straight to a review and leave, go right on ahead. But for all those who are interested in the way my senior prom went, then you can read my second Author's Note. Until next time, good-bye and, as always, GOD BLESS!

Author's Note 2: My senior prom was awesome. It was on Saturday, April 9th. I went with a big group of my friends. We all had dates, except Ericka. But she didn't care. Actually, my date Jamal wasn't really my boyfriend. He was just a friend who I convinced to go with our group. There was a total of nine of us-four boys and five girls. My dress was gorgeous. It was a baby blue that had straps and plenty of sparkles that crisscrossed all the way down the dress. We had all agreed to meet at Elizabeth's house. Jamal came and picked me up at my home and then we drove over to Elizabeth's. As we pulled into her driveway, we were surprised to find her and her date just getting out of her car. Apparently, she wasn't even ready yet! I asked her why she wasn't in her dress yet when everybody else was already here and she responded by saying that she had go pick up her corsage and her date's boutonnière. Then, she had drive all the way over to her date's house to pick him up. We ended up catching her as she got home. So, while Elizabeth was upstairs dressing, the girls all stood in the hallway talking. The guys were collected in the living room watching _Everybody Loves Raymond_. After Elizabeth was finally ready, we took a bunch of pictures and left for the restaurant. Seven of us ate at Italiano's, while the other two went to Steak & Ale for a more private dinner. The meal was great! I had no idea that they served such great pasta. Anyway, we all got annoyed at Ericka because she thought that she had gotten this huge stain on her white dress. We all stared at it but none of us could find anything. However, she was so convinced, that she called her dad to bring her, get this, _other_ prom dress up to the restaurant to change into. Believe it or not, he did. Strangely, she ended up staying in her first dress. After dinner, we all crowed into separate cars. The drive down the highway didn't take very long. Hotel Sofitel was hosting prom, as they always do every year. Upon arriving at the hotel, we received quite a laugh. In front of us was this school bus that had white Christmas lights decorated across the windows and couches inside. On the side of the bus, the words, "Redneck Limo" were plastered. On the front of the bus were giant steer horns, while on the back, someone had spray painted, "Redneck Prom." We all got a pretty good laugh from it. The prom itself was downstairs, below the hotel's lobby. The were two bars that served everything but alcohol. Unfortunately, the decorations weren't anything special-just black, silver, and white balloons. But in the center of the snack table, was this enormous ice sculpture of a shooting star. It was designed to go along with the theme of the night, "Captured in a Dream." As it turns out, Jamal wasn't a dancer. He actually ditched us for a good portion of the night, so we all decided that he had gotten "lost." None of us cared though. We had a great time dancing in a group anyway. I did manage to get Jamal for some professional pictures being done. I even got a group photo. I was disappointed with who won prom king and queen. I only knew three people on the court, and they only ended up as princes and princesses. But as the French say, "that's life." I saw some awesome dresses. Everyone looked so great; formal really is a good look for young adults. We stayed until midnight when prom was over. None of us felt like calling it a night, so we decided to go bowling. Jamal took me home, and I changed into a more comfortable outfit. A bowling alley on one of the highways always has cosmic bowling on Saturday nights. Cosmic bowling is so much fun! They play music while the alley is completely set under black light, so everything glows fluorescently. We managed two and a half games, but had to quit when the alley closed at two. Afterwards, we talked in the parking lot for a few minutes. Then Jamal took me home. I walked in the door at 2:15 in the morning and fell asleep fifteen minutes later. To finish, I slept in the next morning. It was a wonderful night. Nothing bad happened and I had a magnificent time with my friends. Overall, my prom was definitely a night that I will never forget, for the memories are ones that I will enjoy keeping for the rest of my life.

Author's Note 3: That's all for now everyone. See you next chapter!


	5. The Training Continues

Disclaimer: I do not own the turtles or Master Splinter. I do, however, own Master Mao-Shi. I did make him up after all.

Author's Note: I AM SO SORRY GUYS. Everyone has been leaving me e-mails and stuff telling me to update my story. It's not that I've been ignoring them or not checking them, because I have read them. Trust me. It's not that I don't want to finish this story, because I do. And, thankfully, I haven't been having any family problems. On the contrary, my home life has been going great. It was just that, the last month was absolutely CHAOTIC. That's really the only word to describe it. Every waking moment was spent getting ready for graduation. I was so busy with trying to wrap everything up at school, that I had no time to update. And when I did, I usually had other things on my mind. I'm really sorry guys. I did have a wonderful graduation though. Family, friends, and lots of presents, money included. What else could a high school senior have asked for? It was definitely an event I'll never forget. And I finally have my diploma. That is something to be happy about. Anyway, with summer here, and free time finally an option once more, I can update my stories all I want-which is good news for both readers and one certain writer. I am trying for a job, so you might not see updates that quickly, but you should never see another wait like the last one. I promise. Ok, with all that said, it's time for some shout-outs:

**_Darktiger2:_** Thanks for the info on how to contact. It was very useful. It's cool that your mom wants to read my story. I hope that she will like it once it's complete. Thanks for the review!

**_Chibi Rose Angel:_** It's so nice to know that you think of me as not only a good writer, but also as your friend. That really brings a happiness to me that can be hard to find over the internet. Anyway, the personal e-mail was very thoughtful. Just to let you know, I will be having my new Klunk story up soon. I've hit a little snag (namely writer's block) and am not sure exactly how I want to end it. But rest assured, I'll figure out something soon. My mom came up with some ideas that I'd like to use, so I might have it up sooner than we think. I'm glad you had a nice prom too. It's cool that I inspired you. And now, here is the update that you have been asking for.

**_Pi90katana:_** I have to admit; I'm not that imaginative. A lot of the things that are happening in my story, I have borrowed from other places. They were cool ideas, so I decided to use them in my story. But, just so no one gets mad at me, most of the story from here on end will be a product of my own imagination. Scout's honor. (Although, I haven't been a scout since the 5th grade.) I'm glad you like all the shape-shifting. There's a whole lot more in this chapter. Read on to find out!

**_kikiyophoenix19: _**I'm really sorry you missed your prom. I loved mine, and I feel bad for anyone who didn't get to go to theirs for whatever reason. On a lighter note, I really worked hard to try and give a vivid detail of the spirit world. It is important to me that my readers see the worlds as I do when I write them. That helps establish a connection between the author's words and the reader's own image of what is going on in the story. I hope I have continued that throughout this chapter as well. Thanks for the encouraging review. I'd love to see more.

**_pacphys: _**I know how difficult computers can be sometimes. But for graduation, I got a brand new laptop which works like a dream. I absolutely love it! I have a feeling that I won't be getting any problems from it. Anyway, even though Leo isn't your favorite turtle, I still hope that I'm giving you a worthwhile story to read. And, to make things more exciting, Don, Raph, and Mikey will finally be getting involved with all this mystical stuff in the next chapter. Just a little heads up. Enjoy this update and don't forget to review!

**_spootycup: _**It's awesome that you like my story! I know you're a big Leo fan like me, so I hope that this update will continue to carry the plot through and, of course, do all of the characters justice. It always ticks me off when my favorite character isn't acting quite like himself. Here is more for you to love… (Go ahead; take a big spoonful. There's plenty to go around.)

Well, that is all for the shout-outs. I think I got everybody. When you guys leave me reviews, please don't vex me for making you all wait for so long. I'm already mad at myself for doing so. I promise it won't take as long for the next update. Once again, I'm sorry. Ok, enough. Here's the long anticipated next chapter of _Away From Myself_!

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Chapter 5-The Training Continues…

The weeks passed slowly. Every other day at exactly eleven o'clock, Master Splinter and Leonardo would ask to be left alone by the other turtles and would enter Splinter's room. They would light some candles and settle themselves on to the soft pillows. Then, the two would fall into deep meditation as they worked to unlatch their souls from their bodies. Soon, their spirits would be free and traveling along the same path to reach the beautiful sanctuary that they had journeyed to on Leo's first day of long term astral projection training.

At first, the only ones Leo trained with were Master Mao-Shi and Splinter. And, for a time, all he practiced was shape shifting. He worked hard every day as he found it easier and easier to become all sorts of animals, from a tiny mouse to a full grown Bengal tiger. However, he could not find a way to become a human. Curious, he asked his sensei about it. But, as Master Splinter explained it, there are just some things that cannot be achieved, even in the realm of the mystic.

On one particular day, when Splinter was going to have a shape shifting duel with Leonardo, Mao-Shi pulled his friend aside. "Splinter, my friend, your son has grasped the art of becoming other animals quite well."

"Yes," replied Splinter, "I have noticed that myself. Leonardo has always been a very fast learner."

"Well, I must say, Leonardo has impressed me more than I ever thought possible. If you do not mind me saying so, but might this be an appropriate time to introduce him to the elemental portion of shape shifting?"

Splinter thought about his friend's proposition for a moment. "I suppose I could begin the element teachings. It is the usual next step in learning the mystic arts."

"Well, then, there you go. You know, I am a bit curious as to what his natural element is anyway."

The old rat laughed. "Ha, I remember when I first discovered my element-electricity, of all things. But, once I learned how to become and control the rest of the elements of nature, I found that they all came easily to me."

"Yes, well, I believe that that happens to all of us once we practice in the mystical arts for long enough," replied Master Shi.

Leonardo had been standing in the dirt clearing next to the forest watching his sensei and Master Shi converse with one another. Though Leo was normally the most patient of all his brothers, he couldn't help but be a little anxious to get on with the day's session. Having delve quite deep already into the mystic arts, every chance Leo got to practice his growing skills only excited him more and spurred him on to want to be taught more and more of what his father and Mao-Shi had to offer him. "Master Splinter," he called, "I'm ready for your next lesson."

"Alright, my son. I will be there in a moment," said Splinter. The old rat turned back to Mao-Shi. "If Leonardo is truly ready, then I will begin to teach him how to transform into different elements." The rat left Mao-Shi on the soft patch of grass and walked over to his oldest son. "Well, Leonardo, it seems that you have mastered animal shape shifting, and as such, I do not feel that we should spend too much time on something you have already grasped quite well. Therefore, we shall move on with the next lesson in the mystic arts-elemental shape shifting."

"'Elemental shape shifting'?" repeated Leonardo. "What is that sensei?"

"Be patient my son and I will show you."

Leo's heart began to whirl as he realized that he was getting to learn something new once again.

"Now, my son, watch closely as I demonstrate how to become one with the elements of nature around us." The rat laid his walking stick down upon the ground, closed his eyes, and put his paws together in front of his long snout. "I shall now become the purifying spirit of water…" Splinter's form began to glow as a familiar white mist surrounded his spirit body.

Leo watched as Splinter's form swirled and blurred, then dropped into a small puddle of water. Surprised, the blue-clad spirit stared down into the pool. "Master Splinter?" he asked. The puddle suddenly shifted and moved rhythmically around on the hard ground. It circled Leo, flowing with a certain ease and carelessness. It then moved toward the grass that Mao-Shi was sitting on.

The wise, old master leaned down and lightly touched the surface of the puddle. "Oh Splinter, I should have known that you would have picked water to be the first element to teach," he said.

The puddle shifted once more and then molded itself back into the form of Splinter. "Well, what did you expect old friend?" the rat asked. "Water is always the easiest element to master and is normally the first to be taught."

"I know," answered Mao-Shi. "I just thought that with Leonardo's exceptional learning capabilities, you would have begun with something a little more difficult."

"Though it is true that my son is quite capable of learning and mastering new skills much better than others, I still do not like to push him too hard when it comes to learning and discovering things that are completely foreign to the mind, especially when first encountered."

"Aw, well, yes, I suppose that might be what is best. After all, you know your son much better than I do," said Master Shi.

"Good," said Splinter. "Now, let us see if Leonardo can repeat what I have just done." The oversized rodent limped back to Leo. "So Leonardo, you have just seen me transform into a puddle of water. Now, try and see if you can do the same thing."

"Is it any harder than becoming animals?" asked Leo.

"No, my son. In fact, elemental shape shifting is quite similar to animal shape shifting. Both require an extreme control of the mind and the ability to focus one's attention on becoming a form that they are not normally accustomed to being."

"Ok, I'll give it a try," Leo said. He took a couple steps backward and closed his eyes in concentration. 'Ok,' he thought, 'this is just like turning into an animal. I just have to focus on becoming water. Wait, what does that feel like?' He scanned his brain for a minute, trying desperately to come up with some logical explanation of what it would feel like if he were a puddle of water. He finally decided on focusing on what a bath feels like. 'I guess it would be wet and soothing, sometimes warm and sometimes cold, very free, yet constricting as well, and of course, I have to be flexible and willing to go just about anywhere.' The turtle allowed these thoughts to consume his mind and began to fill his spirit body with the sensation of being a liquid. Before Leo knew what was happening, he _was_ a puddle of water. It really wasn't the most unusual feeling he had ever experienced, it was just different. For a moment, he just lay there on the ground.

"Very good Leonardo," said Splinter as the rat bent over. "Now, try moving your new form."

Leo tried to answer his sensei, but all he got out was a dulled murmur and a few bubbles. Concentrating, the small puddle started to wiggle, then was soon flowing around all over the ground.

"Ah, I see the young pupil has discovered yet another aspect of mystical training," remarked Mao-Shi.

Excited, the puddle danced about.

"Yes, he did," congratulated Splinter. "Now, Leonardo, see if you can change back."

Leo halted his celebration at the sound of Splinter's proposal. Concentrating his thoughts upon becoming a mutant turtle again, Leo suddenly found himself in his natural form once more. "Wow, that wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be."

"No, once you become used to it my son, shape shifting can be quite easy," said the old rodent.

"Can I become other elements of nature?" Leo asked.

"Of course Leonardo," said Splinter. "All one must do is focus their mind on becoming that element, allow those thoughts to fulfill their bodies, and then, you shall become that element."

"Ok, then let me try something else," said Leo. "Maybe a rock?" Concentrating, Leo soon found himself in the form of a rock. Feeling vulnerable and incredibly stiff, he quickly transformed back into his normal form.

"Well done Leonardo," said Mao-Shi.

"I'll think I'll try that again. But just, not as a rock," said Leo. Deciding to become something a little less stable, Leo focused on becoming fire. Hoping that he wouldn't end up accidentally burning himself, he once more focused his thoughts. Soon, he was looking at the world through a bright yellow-red flame. Leo was expecting to feel very hot and in extreme pain, but instead, all he sensed was a feeling of coolness and calm. 'Cool,' was the only thought in Leo's mind.

"So Leonardo, now that you have become fire, what do you plan on doing with yourself?" asked Splinter.

Splinter's question completely caught Leo off guard. Now realizing that he couldn't talk as an element, Leo just shrugged his fiery shoulders.

"Why not try to see if he can light something?" suggested Master Shi.

"Like what old friend?" asked Splinter.

Looking around, Mao-Shi found a stick on the ground. Picking it up, he quietly whispered, "Excuse me, I am not holding a spirit in my hand, am I?" When he received no response, he turned to Leo.

Seeing Mao-Shi's peculiar behavior left Leonardo slightly confused. He wondered why the master had just spoken to a stick. 'I'll have to ask him once I can talk again,' he thought.

Holding the thin piece of wood out in front of him, Mao-Shi said, "Now, show us that you can use your fiery body to ignite this stick. And please, try not to singe my fingers in the process."

'I'll try not to,' thought Leo. Curious if he could manage to fire a small burst of flame without scorching any unwanted mentionable, Leo formed a fist size ball of fire in his yellow-red hand. 'Here goes,' he thought. With a shout, he shot the flame into the air. The fire zipped through the air and gently lit the top of the stick. It then sprung obediently back into Leo's hand.

Mao-Shi lifted the stick to his eyelevel. After studying it for a minute, he smiled. "Impressive, most impressive," he said.

Resuming his natural form, Leo bowed to the elder spirit. "Thank you Master Shi. But...uh..."

"What is it young one?" asked Mao-Shi.

"Master Shi, I don't mean any disrespect, but why did you ask that stick a question before I flamed it?"

"What? Oh that…I was simply making sure that we were not about to burn an innocent spirit. You see, in the mystic realm, you have to be very mindful and careful of your surroundings. Everything that you see around has the potential to be another spirit. They just may not look like it because some spirits prefer to remain in elemental form over their normal state of beings."

"Oh," muttered Leo. He felt a feeling of complete stupidity beginning to consume him.

As if reading his mind, Mao-Shi responded, "Do not feel stupid young one. All beings react in similar ways when they learn something for the first time. But once they do, they are sure to remember what they have learned. Then they can pass on their knowledge to others who have not acquired such wisdom as of yet." Leo was speechless.

Meanwhile, Master Splinter was thrilled with how well his son was performing. "My son, you have done very well, very well indeed." He hugged Leo. "I am so proud of you."

Quietly returning the show of affection, Leo whispered, "I'm glad to know that I didn't disappoint you."

Hearing Leo's remark, the rat pulled his head back to look in Leo's eyes. "Disappoint me?" he asked. "Leonardo, you could never disappoint me during a training session. Believe me; I know what it is like to learn something for the first time and how difficult it can be." Seeing a desperate plea in Leo's eyes, Splinter added, "_And_ how rewarding it can feel to successfully master a long practiced lesson."

Recognizing the compliment, a single tear forced its way down Leo's face. "Thank you sensei," was all he could manage over the lump that was forming in his throat. "You don't know what it means to me to hear you say that."

A few tears poured from Splinter's eyes as the two once more hugged each other. "I believe I do Leonardo. I believe that I do."

Mao-Shi was silently watching the two on the cool grass. Seeing their embrace began to remind him of times long passed when he and his loved ones used to hug one other. He continued his gaze when an idea suddenly popped into his head. He waited until Leo and Splinter had pulled apart and walked over to him before speaking. "Well, Splinter sensei, since your son seems to have learned shape shifting so quickly, I say we put him through some practice rounds with us in order to help him sharpen his mystical skills in battle. I am also curious to see what Leonardo's natural element is."

"'Natural element'?" repeated Leo. "What is that Master Shi?"

"Well, every spirit has a natural element; it is just that most do not realize it. But once a spirit becomes aware of their element, they find that it is a most useful tool. But to answer your question, one's natural element is the elemental form that a spirit is most comfortable in. It is the element that they find they can become most quickly and the one that they can use and control the most efficiently. I was simply curious to know what yours was, though it is probably far too early in your training for you to know."

Leo stared at the dirt covered ground. "You're probably right, but of the three elements that I have tried, I liked being water the most. It felt so relaxing and I didn't have to work to keep my form as much as I had to when I was a rock or fire."

Splinter took the opportunity to join the conversation. "Then it is possible that water may be your natural element Leonardo, but more training is required to know for certain."

"I guess you're right," said Leo.

"Well, why worry about all that now?" asked Mao-Shi. "What about that practice sparring session?"

"Hmmm, that is an idea," said Splinter. "What do you think Leonardo? Would you like to test yourself against Master Shi or myself?"

Leo's first impulse was to decline, but the excitement that was still flowing within him still had him wound up. "Sure sensei," he said. "I would consider it a personal honor to practice with masters such as you and Master Shi."

"As you wish then," said Splinter. "Master Shi, perhaps you could pass along some your skillful battle techniques to Leonardo."

"That is a fine suggestion," replied Mao-Shi. "Come Leonardo; let us spar with one another."

"Yes, Master Shi," Leo said. They left Splinter sitting on the cool grass and walked over to the dirt clearing. The two took a stand and bowed to one another.

Master Shi raised his head and allowed his body to float into a defensive position. Leo also did the same. "Now young one, let us see how much you truly have learned as of now."

"I am ready when you are," Leo replied.

"Then let us begin."

Mao-Shi wasted no time in taking the first move. He ran forward and leapt into the air, quickly changing into a deadly king cobra. Reacting fast, Leo jumped out of the snake's venomous reach. He did a roll, and then whirled around. Seeing the snake making a strike to bite him, he quickly transformed into a boulder. Master Shi's fangs nearly broke on Leo's rock solid exterior. The snake pulled back and reshaped itself into Mao-Shi's familiar form.

"Good reaction time Leonardo," remarked the master.

Leo also resumed his beginning form. "Thank you," he replied.

"But let us see how good you are at performing quick changes and then using them to your advantage."

"Alright," said Leo.

"Then let us go again. Ready?"

"Ready."

"Go!" yelled Mao-Shi.

This time, it was Leo who made the first move. He did two back flips, and, on his third flip, became a blue orb. He charged forward, but, before he could touch Mao-Shi, he disappeared. Mao-Shi, expecting a full on frontal attack, had already launched himself into an offensive form. He hurled a ball of earth at the orb, but was startled when it disappeared. He quickly glanced about himself. With his visibility gone, Leo took the opportunity to pull up higher in the sky. He did a u-turn and changed into a fire ball. Picking up speed, he pointed himself directly at Mao-Shi. Sensing an incoming assault, Mao-Shi turned and jumped out of the way just as Leo hit the ground. The impact caused an explosion, which left a large hole in the ground. The hit had forced Leo to lose his concentration, and, as a result, he changed back to his regular state. Regaining his composure fast, he transformed back into an orb and flew out of the hole. But back on the ground's surface, he found nothing but emptiness.

Confused, he scanned the area madly, fully aware that he was now at a serious disadvantage and vulnerable to an attack. "Master Shi?" he called. Just as he about to change into a puddle of water to protect himself, a shadow fell upon him. Before Leo could react, a surge of electricity ripped through his orb body. The shock completely overwhelmed him and he dropped to the ground exhausted and sizzling. Looking up, the orb found Master Shi, now with a pair of large bat wings flapping on his back, hovering in the air. The master's hands had wisps of smoke trailing off them.

"Are you okay young one? I did not hurt you too much did I?"

"No, it's alright," moaned Leonardo. He floated a foot or two back up into the air and shook himself off. "I was expecting an attack, just not one to be delivered like that. I didn't know you could use elements without having to fully become them or add animal parts to yourself."

Master Shi landed softly on the ground. "Oh yes. That is one of the more useful tools of mastering the mystical arts. Learning how to not only shape shift, but be able to control and use only certain aspects of them is something that most only discover after many years of practice."

"I'll guess I'll have to remember that one next time," said Leo.

"Unfortunately, that 'next time' will have to wait Leonardo," said Master Splinter. "I am afraid that today's lesson has come to an end. It is time for us to go home."

"Ok, Master Splinter," sighed Leo. He was beginning to hate it when the time to return home had come. The turtle turned to Mao-Shi.

"I will be here when you two come back," said Mao-Shi.

"Thank you for the sparring match and the lessons Master Shi," said Leo. He and Mao-Shi bowed in respect.

"I'll see you tomorrow," said Leo. He turned away from the master and changed into an orb.

Splinter also transformed into his white spherical form. He hovered over to Master Shi.

"Farewell for now my comrade," said Mao-Shi.

"And the same to you old friend," replied the rodent.

"Perhaps you could bring your other sons by sometime?" asked Mao-Shi. "After seeing what Leonardo can do, I would love to get to observe his brothers."

"I am afraid that they have a long way to go before they will be ready to travel into the mystical realm," said Splinter.

"Well, when you believe they are ready, you bring them by. Then I can meet them and begin to teach them just as I have their elder brother."

"I have a feeling that they would like that very much."

"Until then," said Mao-Shi.

"Until then," replied Master Splinter. With a nod, he took off into the sky. Meeting up with Leonardo, the two headed back to the lair with Mao-Shi waving good-bye.

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Intense sparring sessions followed over the next two weeks. Every day, Leo practiced his animal and elemental shape shifting with Master Splinter and Mao-Shi. He also practiced combining the two and sparring in his natural state, but using the different elements as weapons and various animal appendages as helpers in the battles. With each lesson, Leonardo grew more and more skilled. Mao-Shi and Splinter could not help but be amazed at how quickly Leo was picking up the mystic arts.

"He seems to be a natural at this," Master Shi once remarked.

"Yes, it is as if he was literally born to do all this," agreed Splinter.

One day, a landmark anniversary came. As Splinter drew Leo into his room in the lair as he usually did at eleven o'clock, he paused.

"What is it sensei?" Leo asked.

"My son, I have just recalled something. Today marks the six-month anniversary of when you first began your astral projection training."

"Really? It's been that long? I thought that we've only been practicing for a month or two. Wow…six-months…" he mused.

"Yes, I too am surprised that it has been that long."

Leo was silent for a moment.

Seeing his pupil's silence, Splinter asked, "Something troubles you my son?"

"Well, it's just that…"

"Yes?"

"Well, as you said, it's been six months now, and I was just thinking…why don't we let Raph, Mikey, and Don in on what we've been doing? I know we've talked about this before, but I really don't think that they would react badly to astral projection. In fact, I have a feeling that they would be really excited to learn it. The opportunity might even convince them to practice meditation more."

Splinter let a paw rub his chin. "Perhaps…"

"Besides, if they learned astral projection, you might get a few more quiet hours to yourself. If they were in the spirit world, then the chances of something happening to them would be pretty slim, right?"

'Oh, you would be surprised, my son," thought Splinter, but he didn't say that out loud.

"And Master Shi and I would be there to keep an eye on them, just in case."

"I suppose so..." said Splinter.

"Please Master Splinter?" Leo asked. "The guys have been questioning me a lot lately and I'm running out of excuses. And I really don't want to have to lie to them nor do I want to have to go against your word."

Taking a deep breath, Splinter sighed. "Oh…alright Leonardo. We shall allow your brothers to become a part of our training sessions."

"Yes!" cried Leo.

"But..." began the rat. This got Leo's attention. "Let it wait until after today's lesson."

"Okay, thank you sensei," replied Leo. He bowed to Splinter.

"Good. Now, shall we be off? I was hoping to run you through a more difficult test today."

"Sounds good to me," answered Leo.

The two settled themselves on the pillows as accents from the candles filled the air. They drifted into silence as they once more unleashed their souls and departed for the mystic realm.

But, just as the two orbs had left the room, Splinter's door opened and Raphael came storming in.

"Alright, that's it; that is it!" he yelled. "It's been like six months now! What on the island of Manhattan have you two been doing all this time!"

"Raph!" yelled Don, "you know you can't just go barging in on one of Leo and Master Splinter's meditation sessions!"

"I don't care anymore!" Raph cried. "These two have been going off and doing the same routine for too long now! And, in case you guys haven't noticed, every time we try to ask them to find out what they've been doing, they just make up some excuse to get us off their backs! Well, I've had enough of all this bullcrap! I want some answers and I want them NOW!" The infuriated turtle paused as his chest rose up and down. He stared at his brother and sensei. "Hey! Haven't you two been listenin' to a word I've been saying?"

Mikey poked his head in. "I don't think so Raph. Man, it's like they haven't even heard you."

"Or, they're just really good at ignoring Raph," said Don.

"Aw, shut it Donnie!" yelled Raph. "Ok, I don't care how far asleep you guys are!" He stomped over to Leo's body and began to shake his older brother. "Leo, you had better wake up and answer me or I'm gonna' get really mad!"

He shook Leo harder and harder until he finally let him go. Leo's body swayed for a moment and then flopped lifelessly on the floor.

"That's strange," said Don as he and Mikey came fully into the room.

"He didn't even wake up," squeaked Mike. "Leo isn't…" He gulped, "dead, is he?"

"No way," said Raph. "He's probably just playin' to get us to go away."

"Well still, we should at least check to make sure they're alright," insisted Donatello. The techno turtle walked over and put his fingers on Leo's neck, searching for a heartbeat. "Hmmm…he's got a pulse, but it's awfully dim. I can barely feel it."

"Is he breathing?" Raph asked.

Don put his ear to Leo's face. "Yes, but his breath is quite shallow."

Mike moved over to Splinter and checked the rat's pulse and breathing. "Master Splinter's the same," he said.

"I don't get it," said Raph. "I knew in meditation that you can lower your heartbeat and breathing, but doesn't this seem like a bit too much? I mean, what is going on here?"

"They appear to be in a state of hibernation or something," Don stated.

"'Hibernation'?" repeated Raph.

"You mean, like what a bear does in winter?" asked Mike.

"No. It's more like _torpor_," said Don.

"'_Torpor'_? What's that?" Raph wondered.

"Well, _torpor_ is what some animals go through when they get too cold or when they prepare their bodies to shut down for the winter. The technical definition is a state of mental and motor inactivity with partial or total insensibility. It's sort of like when our bodily functions slow way down. You could think of it as the state one goes through when they fall into a deep sleep. You know, like when we practice chi-gong."

"Oh yeah," said Raph. "I guess I can imagine that."

"But why would they want to do something like that?" asked Mike.

"I'm not sure Mikey," said Don. "But I think we ask them once they wake up again."

"You mean, _if_ they wake up again," said Raph.

"IF? What you do mean by that?" yelled Mike.

"Calm down, Mikey, I was just kiddin'," replied Raph.

"Yeah right," huffed Mike as he sulked out of the room.

"There he goes again," snorted Raphael.

"Maybe you ought to go apologize to him Raph," Don said.

"Apologize? What for?"

"Come on Raph. Even I know you're not that dense. You know how Mikey gets around subjects like that."

Raph sighed. "Yeah, I know. But with all the stuff we go through nearly every day, he shouldn't be like that."

"Well, changing what bothers Mikey is like trying to change a light bulb from forty feet up. You can do it, but you have to be very careful. And you might end up doing more damage than good."

"Sure Donnie. You just keep that metaphor to yourself."

"I still think you should go apologize to him."

Sighing once more, Raph realized that unless he said "I'm sorry" to Mikey, Donatello probably wasn't going to let the subject drop. Rolling his eyes, Raph headed out of the room shouting, "Mikey! Mikey come back! I gotta' talk to you!"

"Oh brother," said Don. When Raph had left, the purple-clad turtle took one last look back at Splinter and Leo. "Please be ok," he whispered. Hearing more shouting coming from the main room, Don shook his head and left the two soulless bodies in peace.

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Far away in the mystic realm, the souls of Leonardo and Master Splinter were just arriving at their usual training grounds when Leo suddenly stopped. Turning his orb body around, Leo looked back towards the way they had just come.

Seeing his son's sudden behavior, Splinter also halted and turned. "My son, why have you stopped?"

"I'm…not sure," said Leo. "I just suddenly got this really strange feeling. It was like someone was shaking me or something, but I could barely feel it. I don't know; I've never felt anything like it before."

"Hmmm, do you still feel this sensation Leonardo?" asked Splinter.

"No and that's what so strange about it. It disappeared just as suddenly as it came up. I'm not really sure what is what in the first place. Do you think this could mean something sensei?"

"I am not sure my son. Your description of the feeling you felt is not foreign to me, but it is one that is normally quite uncommon."

"Should we go back then?"

Splinter thought for a moment. "No. I do not believe that is any cause for concern. For now, let us practice and if there are any more distractions, then we shall go back."

"Yes sensei," said Leo. Following his father, Leo flew over the familiar field of sunflowers. 'I'm curious if Master Shi is hiding in there,' he thought. But as the two drifted closer to the ground, no wayward flower chose to make an appearance. Approaching the dirt clearing, Leo saw no sign of Mao-Shi. "That's odd," he said. "I wonder where Master Shi is."

"I am not sure my son," said Master Splinter.

"Should we go and look for him?" asked Leo.

Splinter calmly turned to Leo. "No my son. If Master Shi wishes to not be present today, then we must respect his wishes." Seeing Leo's slightly disappointed look, he added, "Perhaps he shall come by later."

"Yeah, I guess so," muttered Leo.

"Come; let us begin our training lesson. That should take your mind off worrying."

Leo sighed. "Ok Master Splinter."

The two orbs floated over to the dirt. In tandem, they morphed from spheres to their normal forms. They bowed to each other and took up defensive positions.

"Now my son; let us begin."

"I'm ready sensei." Taking a great leap forward, the turtle changed into a lion in an attempt to swat the rat. But Splinter was quick to react. Quickly sprouting bird wings, the sensei flew into the air. Doing a flip, he launched himself back towards the ground and headed straight for Leonardo. Seeing the move, Leo changed into a puddle of water just in time. He left a hole in his liquidly center, he managed to dodge Splinter's foot. Swirling around on the ground, he avoided attack after attack from Splinter. He moved to the far side of the clearing and transformed back into his natural state.

"What is the matter Leonardo?" taunted Splinter. "You have not attacked me much at all."

"I'm just buying my time," replied Leo.

"Ah, but sometimes, wasting too much time in planning an attack can force you to miss an opportunity to strike. Come; attack me again."

Shouting, Leo rushed Splinter. Kicking and punching, he attempted to lay strike after strike on Splinter. However, the rodent was playing defensive and swiftly dodged each one of Leo's swipes and kicks. Catching Leo's foot, Splinter drew back to lay his own kick to Leonardo. But Leo was expecting this and was able to twist out of his father's grasp before Splinter could connect. Doing a couple back flips, he sprang forth wings of his own and flew into the sky. Flapping his own wings, Splinter followed his pupil and soared into the air. The two rose higher and higher off the ground. Splinter formed balls of electricity and began firing them at Leo. The younger spirit also began firing balls, but his were made of fire. For a time, the souls whirled round and round one another, shooting balls and dodging the other's projectiles. Like ballet dancers, they glided through the atmosphere, twirling and twisting in an inspiring duet, complete with its own special effects.

"Are you getting tired yet my son!" called Master Splinter.

"Not yet sensei! How about you!"

"Oh, I could keep going for some time Leonardo! I just needed to know that you were not ready to quit!"

"I'll quit when you do!" shouted Leo as he dodged another electric ball.

"Very well my son! But let us return closer to the ground!"

Confused, Leo stopped his attack. "What do you mean Master Splinter?"

Splinter halted his assault as well. The rat nodded towards the ground and replied, "See for yourself."

Looking down, Leo was startled to find that they had flown a good mile or two from the ground. "Wow; I didn't realize we had gone so far up."

"Yes Leonardo-which is why I suggested we sustain our match until we have lowered ourselves in altitude."

Glancing from Splinter, then to the ground, then back to Splinter again, Leo laughed. "Good idea."

In unison, Splinter and Leo dove through the clouds until they had regained an eight foot gap between them and the dirt below.

"Ah, much better," said Splinter.

"I'll say," chuckled Leo.

"Alright, now that we have greatly decreased our possible falling distance, shall we continue with our match?" asked the rat.

'Falling distance?' thought Leo. Shaking his head, he answered, "Yes. Once again, I'm ready sensei."

The two were soon dueling it out with one another once more. They were so consumed in their sparring match that both failed to notice the dark clouds beginning to slowly cover the sky. Like a plague descending upon the land, the clouds swirled and swarmed together, forming one huge ugly mass. The enormous cloud hovered over the pair as if it was pausing to watch the combatants before it unleashed the full torment of its watery load.

Below, Splinter was winning the match. Though this was to be expected, the old rodent was actually surprised that his son had managed to fight for so long, without showing any signs of exhaustion until just now. 'I should have known,' he thought. 'Leonardo was always the one to push himself harder than any of his brothers.' But now, Leo's fatigue was slowing him up and making it difficult for him to concentrate. He wasn't holding his forms for very long and was avoiding most of Splinter's attacks, rather than trying to perform any of his own. Splinter realized that if they didn't stop the match soon, Leo might not have enough energy left to make it back home.

Halting his attack in midair, he said, "My son, I believe that we have had enough for today. I think that it is time we stopped. We need to rest anyway before we head for home."

Avoiding Splinter's last kick, Leo said, "Alright sensei." As understood, Leo knew he couldn't breathe as a soul. But, if he was presently in his body, Leo was sure that he would be inhaling and exhaling harder than a racehorse in the Kentucky Derby.

Slowly, they hovered to the ground. To let himself begin to fully recover, Leo withdrew his wings and extinguished the fire that was still burning in his hands. Splinter, having been used to long fights in the mystic realm, still had plenty of energy, and therefore left his wings on. However, he did release the electricity that he had been using. The two sat in silence, quietly relaxing and enjoying the stillness of the area.

Leo lay back and closed his eyes. He was about to fall asleep, when a raindrop hit his head. "Huh?" He opened his eyes to a gray sky. "Looks like it's going to rain."

"It would seem that way," said Splinter.

"I didn't know it could rain in the mystic realm."

"Oh yes. There is weather here, although it can sometimes be a bit more unusual than what we are accustomed to back on earth."

"Like how sensei?"

"Well it-" Splinter was just about to answer, when a large, cloudy hand shot out of the gray sky and grabbed Splinter. Without wasting a second, it retracted, pulling the rat higher and higher, as it began to draw him away.

"Master Splinter!" Leo shot up from the ground and attempted to sprout wings once more. Unfortunately, his energy was still greatly depleted from the sparring match and he was unable to draw forth anything. Thinking fast, Leo was about to transform into his orb form, when another cloudy hand shot forth and slammed him into the ground. The impact left his dazed. A sheet of rain burst forth after a crack of lightning and a blast of thunder filled the air. Catching the full brunt of the tempest, Leo's vision became fuzzy as he watched his father being dragged away into the storm. Before anything more could occur, Leo's consciousness slowly faded away.

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Author's Note: Well, there you have it-straight from my new laptop and on to the site. I hope everyone enjoyed his long awaited chapter. Once again, I do apologize for the rather way too long and inconvenienced wait. Never fear, I have already begun typing the next chapter, so I should have it up within the next week or two, providing I'm not too busy with a job or other summer tasks. (Thinks for a moment.) No, I'll make time. Thank you to everybody who stuck with me. You guys must have the greatest patience of any group of people on the planet. You all should receive an award. (Quickly runs off. Comes back a few hours later.) Ok, it took me awhile, but I finally finished it. I would now like to present the award for the most patience to all of my readers. (You guys can imagine what the award looks like.) Don't worry; I made copies so no one has to fight over whose self it's going to go on. And would it really matter? It's only going to collect dust anyway. Still, I appreciate your willingness to put up with me and to see this story through. And as for all the Don, Mike, and Raph fans out there, I promise that Leo's brothers will be getting their own spotlights beginning next chapter. Don't forget to leave me some reviews as you exit. (And make sure that you tilted your seats all the way back up and that you didn't leave your tray table sticking out for others to gut themselves on. Thank you for choosing Fanfiction Airways. We hope you enjoyed your flight.) Oh, and if anyone is curious, both _torpor_ and chi-gong are real. If any of you remember from the current TV show, the turtles actually practiced chi-gong and explained it when they were stowing away on a Triceraton ship. But, if you still don't believe me, then you can go and do a search online for _torpor _and chi-gong. Take care mis compadres and, as always, GOD BLESS. :)


	6. Taken

Disclaimer: Mirage owns the turtles and Master Splinter. I own Master Mao-Shi and Sarmon. Glad I got that off my chest.

Author's Note: Well, after a really long absence, I'm finally back. I apologize for how long it's taken me to get an update up. I got a job over the summer and I've started college now. I'm afraid that between the two, my time was extremely limited. But now that I'm on Christmas break, I can finally update (and hopefully complete) my stories and maybe even get some new ones up. We'll have to see. I hope everyone likes this next chapter. I already have the chapter following this one halfway typed so there won't be anymore drastically long waits once everyone is done reading this one. Um, I don't know if we are allowed to individually thank our readers for their awesome reviews anymore, so I'm just going to give one huge shout out to all of you: Thank you so much for your reviews! I love reading them! And a big amount of gratitude goes to all those who still wanted to read my story, even after I took so long to update it. Keep sending me those reviews. It really was your words of encouragement that urged me to continue this story. I hope you enjoy it and thanks once again.

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Chapter 6-Taken

Leo woke with a start. "Master Splinter!" he yelled. "Master Splinter!" Looking around wildly, it took a side-splitting headache to reacquaint Leo with the reality of what had happened. "What a minute! Master Splinter got kidnapped-ratnapped…by a cloud? Now this really doesn't make any sense! Oh man, what am I gonna do? I don't know what it even was that took him. I'm not even sure which way they went! This is bad! Really bad!"

By now, Leo was pacing in circles. Catching himself, he lightly batted himself on the face. "Alright Leonardo, it's ok. I just gotta calm down and think things through rationally. So, what do I know? Well, Master Splinter was taken by some strange cloud and I'm not sure where." Remembering something, he added, "Master Shi once said that anything in the spirit world has the potential to be another spirit, just in disguise. I wonder if that cloud was really a spirit that wanted to kidnap-ratnap-sensei. I suppose it's possible. If that's true, then Ihave togo after it."

A voice suddenly beamed through the lucid air. "Go after what young one?"

Startled, Leo whirled around ready to defend himself. After the craziness that had just occurred, he wasn't taking any chances.

"Whoa, whoa little one," said the voice. Leo watched as Mao-Shi came walking out of the forest. "It is only me."

"Master Shi," relaxed Leo. "Am I glad to see you."

"It would appear that way. But, why are you so glad to see me?" Mao-Shi was very quick to notice the distress in Leo's eyes. "Has something happened Leonardo?" Looking about, he added, "Where is Splinter sensei?"

"He's been taken!" cried Leo.

"What! Taken! By whom?"

"I don't know yet. We were resting when this big, huge, cloudlike hand came bursting out of the sky and grabbed him. I tried to follow, but I was still exhausted from our earlier sparring match. Another hand caught me off guard and knocked me out. When I came to, he was gone." Master Shi's eyes had grown as big as dinner plates as he listened to Leo's story. Seeing this, the turtle asked, "Master Shi? Are you okay?"

"What kind of hand did you say it was?" he asked.

Unprepared for the question, Leo had to think for a moment. "Uh…it was big and gray and it came out of a cloud, like it was a part of it or something. Master Shi, you said that in the spirit world, certain elements of nature could actually be other souls. Is it possible that Master Splinter was taken by another spirit?"

"I would very well think so Leonardo," replied Master Shi.

"But who? Who would have the guts to take Master Splinter in a place like this? Who would want to?"

"I could think of one distraught soul."

"Who?"

"It is a long tale, and one that I fear we have not the time to tell in its entirety."

"But I don't understand. Is this really that dire? Shouldn't both of us at least know what we'll be up against once we go to face whoever this is you're talking about?"

"Oh Leonardo, the two of us could never defeat Sarmon alone."

"Sarmon? Is that his name?"

"Yes."

"Well, what makes him so terrible?"

Mao-Shi sighed. Though short on time, he realized that Leonardo needed to know more about his newly acquainted adversary. "Sarmon is a restless spirit young one. He is a soul who was tormented throughout his youth, abused and beaten, and left to find his own way in the world. As a result, he turned to a life of crime. He committed many wrongdoings, from murders to thefts to rapes to kidnappings. For him, there did not seem to be any limit. Ironically enough, he was never caught and lived for a great many years, well into an old age. It was when his time to die became apparent, that Sarmon began to worry about his future-not in life, but in death. It is accepted that he believed that due to his long list of misdoings, that he would suffer greatly after death, and that was when he began to plot how to conquer death."

Leo was confused. "Conquer death? But no one can conquer death."

"Sarmon did, or at least, he tried to. You see, he happened upon an astoundingly old book full of enchantments and spells, one of which included a spell that granted immortality."

"Really? That's amazing."

"Indeed. Sarmon thought that he had found the answer to his problems; that he had at last uncovered a way to defy death. On his dying bed, he read the incantation aloud, expecting to suddenly find himself rejuvenated with life once more. Yet, he mispronounced some of the terms in the spell, and thus, suffered the consequences for it."

"What happened to him?"

"He died, but it was no an ordinary death. You see, instead of either ascending or descending to his forever resting place, he became a spirit, forever bound to this world."

"You mean he became a ghost?"

"Yes….and no. Unlike normal spirits who are free to choose when they are ready to receive their final judgment, Sarmon had no choice. The spell which he had originally thought would save his life instead sealed it into an unstable form that could not leave the realm of the sprit world."

"That sounds awful."

"It is, and it would not be uncommon to have sympathy for the one under the curse. But you must understand that Sarmon is not a soul to have mercy upon."

"But why? I realize that in lifeSarmon may have beena bad person, but why are you still holding it against him now? Hadn't being trapped forever as a wondering spirit at least changed his behavior?"

"One would think so. But no. Sarmon's evil lies deep within the confines of his dismal soul. It seemed that the curse brought out the worse in him, rather than the better."

"What do you mean?"

"Sarmon is a vagrant. He pleases himself by tormenting the other souls in the spirit world. He kidnaps them and performs his own brand of torture on them."

"But souls can't torture one another. They don't have that kind of power."

"Sarmon does."

"What?"

"Before he passed away, Sarmon practiced other spells in his book of enchantments. Most of them faded after his life was gone, but a few remained and followed him into his cursed state. These spells were ones of great power and magnitude. They gave Sarmon amazingly abilities, including the "gift" to grant pain and suffering to those that are already deceased."

"And even ones who aren't?" askedLeo.

"Yes. And now you see why our time is so short."

Leo looked at the ground. "I do. But one thing still has me."

"Yes?"

"Sarmon-"

At that moment, a huge burst of lightning split through the sky, cutting Leo off. A loud clap of thunder followed pursuit. Leo and Master Shi gazed up into the swirling clouds. Before their eyes, an eerie mist surrounded them and began to collect in the sky above their heads.

"Master Shi, what's going on!" yelled Leo over the howl of the wind.

"I am not entirely sure Leonardo!" Master Shi returned.

As if the current state of things were not strange enough, a distorted face slowly appeared in the mist. The eyes were but black pockets in the clouds, empty holes in the foreboding mist. No nose was visible, but a thin line also crept its way into existence under the vacant gaps. Leo could only imagine that is must be the face's mouth.

As if in response to his thoughts, the crack opened and began to speak. "Associates of the rat spirit, I have come with proclamations to rain down upon your sorry excuses for souls."

Leo learned towards Master Shi and whispered, "Master Shi, is that Sarmon?"

"Yes Leonardo," Mao-Shi returned.

"What do we do?"

"We see what he has to say."

"Firstly," began Sarmon, "I must say that I was surprised with howpoor of a defense the so-called 'powerful' rat spirit put up. He came quite easily you know."

"What have you done with Master Splinter!" yelled Leo.

"My, my, you are an impatient one. I suppose I should expect as much from a souls as young as you."

Leo was taken aback. "How did you know I was so young? Aren't you startled by my appearance?"

"Your appearance? Please! With all the sorts of spirits I have seen over my many years stuck in this horrid realm, little surprises me. But tell me little one: what sort of death did you come upon to cause you to die so early in life?"

"I'm not dead!" said Leo.

"Not dead?" questioned Sarmon. "My, that is _interesting_…"

Mao-Shi pulled Leo back. "Leonardo that is enough."

"What? I was just telling him the truth."

"Yes, but I fear that you may have said too much."

"What do you mean?"

Mao-Shi sighed. "I will tell you later if the situation presents itself."

"Huh?"

Master Shi ignored Leo's confusion and focused his attention on Sarmon. "Sarmon, villain! What news have you come to torment us with!"

As if he was shaken back to reality from a pleasant daydream, Sarmon looked down at Mao-Shi. "Oh yes, my announcements. Well, if you really wish to know them-"

"We do!" yelled Mao-Shi.

"Such rudeness. I must say I do not appreciate being INTERUPPTED!" The ground started to shake violently as Sarmon's voice rose. Leo and Mao-Shi were forced to the ground. "There now, that's better."

Leo grunted as he stood up. "Enough with the stalling Sarmon. Get to your point!"

"Well, as you have obviously already guessed, I have the rat in my possession. If you want him back, you have three days to attempt to do so. However, you have my solemn word that I shall have little mercy on any who tries to do so."

"I did not know you had any mercy left Sarmon," said Master Shi.

"Your sense of humor bores me Mao-Shi."

Master Shi glared at Sarmon. "I was not trying to be funny."

"Do I look like I care?" Sarmon stared down at the two souls. "I didn't think so." Sarmon paused to give a gloating glance at Leo and Mao-Shi. "Well, must be off. I don't want to keep my rodent prisoner waiting."

"Waiting? For what?" Leo asked.

"I don't think that you would really like to know," said Sarmon. "Ta-ta."

With that, the face became distorted as the gray cloud slowly dissolved and faded from view. Like the clearing of some deadly storm, the sky opened up and became clear as yellow light swept over the land once more. The sunflowers rose up towards the glow after an unexpected, gloomy sleep.

Leo turned to Mao-Shi. "Master Shi, what should we do?"

"We have to get Master Splinter back."

"I agree, but if Sarmon is as powerful as you say he his,then how are we going to do it?"

"We will call in some help."

"Help?" Leo's hopes whirled. "Do you mean you know of some other spirits who would be willing to aid us in fighting Sarmon?"

"I do not."

The blue-clad turtle felt his hopes nearly die. "Oh, then..."

"I do not Leonardo, but you do."

Leo looked up, flabbergasted. "I do?"

"Yes, but I am not sure if they would be ready to help us."

"I don't understand. Who are you-?" Leo looked into Master Shi's eyes as the older soul nodded and stared back into his. "You don't mean-?

"I do."

"Oh no!" Leo cried. "They wouldn't be ready to do anything like this! They're still having problems with basic meditation sessions. They could never concentrate hard enough to astral project. No, there's no way they could help us!"

"How will we know unless we try? And between the two of us, they are the only help we have."

"I don't know…"

"Leonardo, do you want to save your sensei or not?"

"Of course."

"Then you have to trust they will be able to learn and that their aid will benefit us in the end."

"You really think they can help us?"

"With the right training, yes."

"But we only have three days! We don't have the time to train them! It took me months just to be able to perform decent astral projection."

"I know. But we do not have much of a choice right now."

"Master Shi…"

Mao-Shi laid a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Leonardo, I have faith that you will be able to teach them."

"Me!"

"Yes you. You remember, I cannot return to the living world. I am bound to the this world, so the task of teaching your brothers lies within you."

"But I can't. I'm not skilled enough yet!"

"Leonardo, you just have to believe in their abilities and your own. I know you can do it. And once you bring them to the spirit realm, I will be here to assist in their training."

"But is it possible to teach them so much in such a short amount of time?"

"We will find out."

Leo thought for a moment. He didn't like the idea of having to train Mike, Raph, and Don. He knew none of them were ready to begin astral projection, but at the same time, he recognized the fact that his brothers really were the only help he and Master Shi were to have. He could only begin to imagine the pressure he would be put under to get themto the spirit world in less than three days. _'How on earth am I going to accomplish this?'_ he wondered. _'But I have no choice.'_ Leo swallowed the lump that had accumulated in his throat.

"Ok, I suppose we could try. I mean, if they're the only help we have…"

"Then go; return to the living world. As I said, I will be here awaiting your return."

"By when should I be back?"

"As quickly as possible, but no later than tomorrow night."

Leo gasped. "Tomorrow night! That soon?"

"We have no other choice Leonardo. Sarmon has set his deadline, but I have a strong feeling that he will not keep to it. It is best if we attempt Splinter-san's rescue as soon as we can."

Now really starting to feel the pressure, Leo managed to utter, "I understand."He bowed to Mao-Shi. "I will try to have the others here before the sun sets tomorrow."

Master Shi bowed back. "Yes, let us hope that may be accomplished."

_'Me too,'_thought Leo.

Without anymore moment's hesitation,the oversizedturtlejumped into the sky and reverted to a blue orb.

"I'll be back Master Shi-with my brothers!"

"Good luck Leonardo! Splinter is counting on you but I have faith in you! Remember that!"

_'I will,' _Leo thought. Though he wanted to fly fast, Leo knew he couldn't use up all of his energy. Though still exhausted, he knew had to save as much as he could before the upcoming battle with Sarmon. '_I wish Master Splinter were here. He would know exactly how to train the others. I just hope I can do it too before it's too late.'_ With these thoughts swimming through his mind, the small orb moved further on towards the world of the still living.

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Back at the lair, threeverdant brothers were getting restless.

After finally finding Mike and apologizing to him for his comment about Leo and Master Splinter, Raph had retreated to the punching bag in his room. What Don had said about Leo and Splinter being in state of near suspended animation had him worried. _'What could those two possibly be so involved in that it has them acting like this?'_ he wondered. _'And why won't they tell us what's going on? Surely it can't be anything that we wouldn't understand.'_ Raph punched the bag relentlessly as he swam in his own thoughts. _'They'd better start providin' some answers soon before I have to wake them up and beat them out of them myself.'_

Don meanwhile had also returned to his room to continue tinkering with his machines. But his mind wasn't on his work. _'I never thought that Master Splinter and Leo meditating together was something to worry about, but if they keep up this up for much longer, then this could really become a problem.'_ He had picked up a screwdriver and had started fixing an old radio he had found in a junkyard._ 'I mean, what if their meditating starts having negative effects on them? What if they start getting thin from lack of food or dehydrated from lack of water? Will we have to force-feed them or something?' _Don paused for a moment. _'Or…what if they never wake up?'_ Don heard himself gasp at the thought. He shuddered. "Whoa, where did that thought come from?" he asked aloud. "No, I can't think like that. Of course they'll wake up. They always do. I'm just being a little too paranoid or something-like Leo gets sometimes. No, I'm sure they're just really deep into whatever it is they're thinking about and they're not ready to come out of it yet. That's all." _'But could they be so wrapped up in their own minds that they forget about everything else, even their own bodies?' _Shaking his head, the brainy reptile continued screwing. _'I'm sure we'll find out what's going on soon enough.'_

Michelangelo could hear Raphael's punches and grunts and Donatello's mutterings. _'Those two must be worried as well,'_ he thought. Mike knew well enough that when his brothers retreated into their own rooms, then something was definitely bothering them. It was like they had on invisible signs that said, "Leave me alone; I have my own problems to deal with right now and I don't want to hear any crap from you." Mike couldn't understand how Leo, Raph, and Doncould usewithdrawal as a solution to their troubles. _'I always thought is was unhealthy to keep things all bottled up inside you.' _Turning his back on the noises, Mike went over and sat down on the couch. Klunk hopped up and sat down beside him, waiting to be petted. "I could never spend that much time to myself Klunk. You know me: I'm a social butterfly;I hate to be alone." Klunk looked up at his owner and mewed. "Yeah, I know you don't like to left alone for too long either." But as he sat there stroking the cat, Mike's mind, like that of Don and Raph's, wondered to his oldest brother and master. _'Could meditating be really all they're doing in there? I've never known Leo and Master Splinter to meditate for this long or of this intensity.' _"Maybe they're contacting the spirits Klunk. Or having one very long mental picnic or something." Klunk had fallen asleep in Mike's lap by now. "Sure, a mental picnic…" mused Mike. "With chocolate cake and sandwiches and lemonade. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it." Suddenly, Raph's quote snaked its gruesome self into the youngest turtle's consciousness:"You mean _if _they wait up." The horrid thought echoed relentlessly in the terrain's head. Mike winced at the memory. "No, they're not dead," he repeated to himself. "Like Don said, they're just in tawpa or whatever it was he said they were in. Suspended animation I guess. And besides, people always come out of suspended animation…eventually." He said the last part so quietly that he hoped not even he had heard it. Of course, he knew he had. Mike's fears welled up inside of him. He felt himself start to shake. "No, I'm overreacting!" he cried. "I need to relax-find something to occupy me." He looked around then stared forward. "I know; I'll just watch some TV. Yeah, that will get my mind off all this. Oh, maybe there's a _Munsters_ marathon on somewhere. I could use a good laugh." Finding the remote, Mike readjusted himself and Klunk into a more comfortable position and flipped the television on. _'Master Splinter and Leo will tell us what they're doing when they're ready so why should I worry about it. Besides, it's not like anything dangerous has happened to them.'_

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Quietly, yet abruptly, Leo's spirit appeared through the ceiling of Master Splinter's bedroom. "Man, I can't believe I made it," Leo mused. "That last trip back seemed to take forever." In reality, Leo had no idea how long it had taken him to return to the lair or how long he and Splinter had been gone in the first place. "I guess when you're in the spirit world, time just doesn't have much meaning anymore." However, upon remembering why he was here, he added, "But it does now."

But before he go any further, Leo felt a sudden lapse of energy. An unknown force gripped him in an icy hold, strangling him-if he could breathe. The invisible iron grasp dragged him, compelled Leo's blue spirit to draw closer to his still body. At first Leo wasn't sure what was going on. But it didn't take him long to realize that it was his body that was pulling him. Somehow, the empty vessel had recognized that its soul was once again in the vicinity and was desperate to reconnect with it. The pull was becoming stronger now. "Help, please someone help me!"Leo yelled. But his cries echoed only silence. _'I don't get it, why can't anyone hear me!'_ He resisted even more against the increasing pull. Suddenly, one of Splinter's early lessons in astral projection came flowing back to him. _'"People can only see us if we allow them to. As spirits we have that option."' _"That's right," said Leo. "They can only see us if we let them. But does the same apply for hearingspirits as well? It must. That would explain why no one is coming to help me. Then I guess I'll just have to help myself." Turning to face his body, Leo gave one final effort to abandon its calling. After a couple of seconds, his body gave up. It let its spirit go, sending Leo into a spin across the room.But herecovered quickly. "Glad that's over." Leo looked back at his body. He was sure he saw it sag just slightly in disappointment and disgust at its soul refusing to return to its home. "Sorry," Leo said, "but I'm not ready to go back just yet. I have to save Master Splinter first. And I can't do that if I'm back in my body." His body seemed to sigh in retaliation. Leo looked at the door. "But right now, I have to teach Mike, Raph, and Don how to astral project. And if I can't do that within the next three days, then all hope of saving Master Splinter will be lost."

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Author's Note: So, how was the chapter? Good, I hope. For those of you who may be a little tired of Leo being the main character, your rejoicing is soon at hand. As hinted at, Mike, Don, and Raph will finally be pulled into this huge mess and discover for themselves what has been going on. You'll just have to wait to read how each one will react to it and whether or not they will be able to learn astral projection in time to save Master Splinter. It's a cliffhanger all right. Until next chapter, GOD BLESS:)


	7. New Spirits

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the TMNT or Master Splinter; only Master Mao-Shi and Sarmon.

**Author's Note:** I finally got around to finishing chapter seven of this story. I had been meaning to do it during the summer, but since I was working so much, I was usually too tried to even try. But now with school out for the holidays, I hope to have the conclusion of this story posted soon, and I don't mean half a year from now. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter and continues to stick around for the ending. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!

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Chapter 7-New Spirits

Leaving his body behind, Leo floated softly through Master Splinter's door. The room appeared empty at first, but the sound of the TV, a series of grunts and muffled yells from one room, squeaks and clangs from another room, and a pair of orange bandanas draped over the top of the couch revealed the lives that Leo and Splinter had left behind. _'Michelangelo,'_ Leo thought with a smile. Quietly, he drifted over to where his brother was slumped on the couch.

"**AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!** Raph, Donnie, get your shells down here quick! The lair's haunted!" At the sound of their brother's voice, Don and Raph came bounding out of their rooms and ran towards the living area.

"What's going on Mikey?" asked Don in between breaths of air.

"Yeah, why the heck are you screamin' at the top of your lungs for?" Raph asked.

"Because, I just saw a ghost!" yelled Mike.

Raph and Don gave each other a skeptical look. "Are you sure it wasn't just something you saw on television?" Don asked.

"No!" screamed Mike. "I was watchin' TV, but then it got real cold, you know? I reached over for the blanket, and then, this, white orb-thingy jumped out at me! I think it even said my name or something. I ran behind the couch, but it followed me! I tried to swat it away, but my hand just went right through it! I gasped and it disappeared. I'm tellin' ya, the lair's **haunted!!!!!!**"

Don clasped his hands over his ears. "Ah, not so loud Mike!"

Raph was busy trying to regain hearing in one ear. "Blow a guy's ears out, why don't ya?"

"I'm sorry, but I know that our home is now officially possessed!"

Donnie sighed. "Mikey, the lair's not possessed. Nor are there any ghosts around here. You know as well as I do that they don't exist."

"Oh, yeah?" questioned Mike. He stood up from behind the couch and approached his brothers. "Well, with all the creepy stuff we've come across, I don't see how they couldn't be!"

"Because," Don retorted calmly, "Any living creature being able to, and I quote, 'come back from the dead,' unquote, is theoretically impossible. Though I do believe in souls, I don't see how spirits could still walk the earth when they don't have a body to inhabit. It's not logical and, therefore, it just doesn't seem probable."

A faint breeze of air fluttered past Raph's shoulder. A chill ran down his spine. Carefully, he turned around to see what was spooking him. And what he saw nearly made his eyes burst right out of his head. "Oh yeah, then what do you call THAT?!?!?"

"Huh?" Don turned around and followed Raph's finger. The red-banded turtle was pointing only a couple inches away from where a rich blue, slightly transparent orb could clearly be seen hovering about four feet off the ground.

"Oh man, what is that?!" Don gasped.

"Oh my gosh!" cried Mike. "It is a ghost! I was right! The lair is haunted!" He turned heel and ducked in front of the couch, hiding his head under a pillow.

Don's mind was racing. _'I don't get it. This is isn't possible,'_ he thought. "I'm not sure if I should believe this," he said. "Even if I'm seeing it with my own eyes."

"I don't know what that thing is Don, but we'd better get rid of it quick," stated Raph. He tilted his head back towards the couch. "I think Mikey's starting to have a heart attack over there."

"'**THING'?!**" The blue orb's sudden outburst startled Raph and Don, causing them to whip their heads around in Leo's direction. "Geez Raph, of all the tentative words you could have come up with to call your own brother, you choose _thing_?"

"Holy cow, it talks!" yelled Raph.

"And it knows our names!" squeaked Mike, who had lifted his head only a tiny bit in order to see over the couch.

"Oh, now you're calling me an _'it'_?!" _'If I could change colors right now, I know I'd be beat red after that last remark,'_ thought Leo. He knew he shouldn't be losing his temper so easily with his brothers right now. Despite the fact that they just didn't understand what he was, he could not help but feel insulted by his brothers' comments.

Mike pulled the pillow off his head. _'Now where do I recognize that voice from?'_ he thought. _'It sounds so familiar…like someone I know.'_ Then, the answer suddenly popped into his head. "Wait, I know who that ghost sounds like! It sounds just like Leo!" he yelled.

"What?!" cried Don and Raph.

"That's because it is Leo!" exclaimed the blue orb.

"But that's inconceivable!" stated Don. "Leo's meditating with Master Splinter in the other room. How could, whatever this thing is, possibly be Leo?"

Mike hopped off the couch and shuffled over to Raph and Don. He leaned in close, pulled his brothers together, and whispered. "Maybe it's some kind of hologram designed to sound like Leo and then trick us into doing something someone else wants us to do."

"Now that _actually_ makes more sense," said Don, "though I still don't believe it."

"Sounds to me like Mike's been watchin' way too many spy movies," Raph muttered.

In spirit form, Leo's senses were ten times more acute, so it wasn't difficult for him to hear what Mikey had said. "I'm not a hologram! I'm your older brother Leonardo!"

"Whoa, it heard me!" said Mike as he pulled back. "I barely whispered that."

"I didn't know holograms could do that," said Raph.

"Normally, they can't," said Donatello. Curious, he walked over to the orb and began to observe Leonardo while walking around him.

"Careful Donnie," said Raph. "You don't know what that thing's capable of."

'_Oh Raph, once all this is over, I am so going to get back at you for that one,' _thought Leo. He would have liked to have said what he thought, but concluded that he could do that later.

Meanwhile, Don finished his examination. He stood up with a thoughtfully confused look on his face.

"Well, did ya find anything?" asked Raph.

"Yeah Donnie, what's the verdict?" Mike inquired from behind Raph's back.

"Uh, nothing really. I'm not so sure this is a hologram because I can't find any sort of import bay. If it were, then from the right angle, one should be able to tell where it's being broadcast from. I can't find anything to indicate that this actually is a hologram."

Leo was getting fed up. He knew he didn't have the time to spend convincing his siblings of his current state. "I already told you, **I AM NOT A HOLOGRAM!**" he burst out. His acutely raised tone surprised Don, causing the purple clad turtle to stumble back towards Raph and Mikey. "I'm Leo! You know, your oldest brother? The one who's always lecturing and carries swords around all the time? Why won't you guys believe me?"

The three stood silent for a moment. Then, once more, they huddled into a football timeout position. "I don't know. What do you think guys?" wondered Raph.

Donnie thought for a second. "Well, I'm not completely sure how this thing knows our names, or-"

"That's because it's a ghost!" interrupted Mikey. "And ghosts know everything!"

"_Or_, why it sounds like Leo, or even what it really is," finished Don.

"Wonderful, not even the great Donatello can figure out what is hovering right in the middle of our living room!" cried Raph. His face suddenly changed from an aggravated look to a more astounded one. "Wait-did I just say 'hovering'?"

"If my ears don't deceive me, you did," said Don.

"Guys, why can't you just accept the possibility that this really could be a spirit?" asked Mike. "After all, no one ever thought that aliens were real, and we've proven that belief wrong at least a dozen times."

Raphael considered his younger sibling's last statement. "You know, Mikey does have a point there," he said.

"What?! Don't tell me you're going to believe him too," Donnie cried.

"Well, he does seem to be the only one around here who's come up with an answer to explain all this weirdness. For now, I don't see anything wrong with at least humoring him-unless you can think of some sort of other magical solution."

Don sighed. He looked from his brothers' eyes, glanced once at the still hovering Leo, then stared back at Mike and Raph. Realizing that defeat was immanent, he gave in. "Oh, alright. Circumstances providing, I guess I _might_ be willing to accept Mikey's theory. But that doesn't mean that there still isn't some coherent explanation to all this."

"Great!" exclaimed Mike. "Now that you both believe me, let's try talking to it. Maybe if we ask it real nice, it might be able to explain what it's doing here, what it wants, why it sounds like Leo, and how it knows our names."

The three broke their huddle and turned back to Leo.

By now, the blue orb had lost what was left of his patience while he was waiting for his brothers to finish their discussion about what he was. "Well, I hope you guys are finally done talking. We really need to get a move on."

"Hold on, spirit ball," fussed Raph. "We're not goin' anywhere, until you've proven to us that you really are our brother."

"Yeah," piped Mike. "I mean, how do we know you're really our Leo and not just some spirit that's come to scare us?" He boldly walked right up to Leo's hovering form and spoke directly to his face. "Hmmm? Try answering that one, why don't ya?"

"Besides, with all the monsters and mayhem we've fought in the past, a floating ball kinda starts setting off some little red flags," Raph added.

Leo stared from Mike to Raph to Don. "Donatello, you don't seriously believe these two, do you?" he asked.

"Well, I usually prefer the rational justification to most of the bizarre things that occur to us, but I have to admit; this one's got me stumped. I think I'm going to go with Raph and Mikey on this one," replied Don. _'Oh no, now I'm talking to it,'_ the brainy reptile thought.

"I can't believe this!" Leo cried. He pulled back and started to float around the other turtles. "Why do I even have to prove myself to you three? Shouldn't my voice be enough?"

"Not always," Mikey stated nervously. Though he wanted to believe what this orb was saying, having it float continually around his head was starting to make him uneasy.

"I don't know why I'm asking this, but, what do you mean Mike?" asked Raph.

Michelangelo turned to Raphael. "Well, in a bunch of my comic books, ghosts have the ability to copy other people's voices. All they have to do is hear the person just once, and 'bingo!' they can imitate them perfectly."

Hearing his brother's timid reply threw Leonardo's tolerance off the edge. He nearly tumbled on to the floor, but was able to catch himself in time and continue floating. "Oh brother!" he yelled. "I give up! I never thought I'd actually have to do this, but if I really have to prove that I am who I say I am to my own siblings…" If breath was still an option to a spirit, Leo would have taken a very deep one right about now. "Fine! Michelangelo." Mikey perked his head up at the mention of his full name. "You have a faint scar on the underside of your right arm that you got when you first stepped foot on a skateboard when were all six. It slipped out from underneath you and you fell back and cut your arm on the corner of the table."

Mike unconsciously put his left hand underneath his right arm. Sure enough, he could still feel the scar. "I can't believe it. How'd he know that?" he wondered.

Leo turned to Raph. "Raphael, you once snuck out in the middle of the night and got into a strip club through an open window on the roof, and I had to come and drag your sorry butt all the way home." Raph's face started to turn a slight sad of scarlet as Mike and Don both turned to look at him.

"You got into a strip club?" asked Donnie.

"And you didn't invite us?" Mike whined.

"Yeah…" sighed Raph. He put his hand behind his head as he began to drift into an elongated state of euphoria. "I saw some things that night, I ain't never gonna forget."

"You and me both, dear brother," remarked Leo. He turned to Don. "And Donatello, you once thought you had invented a working time machine and went around thinking that it was ten years into the future for an entire day."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," laughed Don. "I can still remember how funny everyone thought it was when I discovered that you guys were only teasing me. Splinter wasn't the only one angry when the truth was uncovered." He chuckled for a minute, and then paused. "Hey, wait a minute." He looked at the blue orb. "There's only one person in this world that would know all that, and that's…"

"Leo!" broke out Mikey, "I knew it was you all along!"

"Sure you did," Leo said sarcastically.

"Hey, cut me some slack here bro," Mike responded. "It's only natural for somebody to be suspicious of a glowing ball that's hovering in the middle of the floor."

"Fascinating…" said Don. He walked towards Leonardo, reanalyzing every inch of his brother's spirit. "I'm not exactly sure how you're doing this Leo, but it's amazing. I'll definitely have to compile a full investigation on this."

'_It will have to wait Donnie,' _Leo thought, _'We've got more important concerns on hand.'_ He watched as Don once more began a thorough scrutiny of his current state. "Look, it's nothing, I'm just-"

"Hold on a sec," interrupted Raph. "Despite you knowing all that, how can you really be Leo? Like Don said, our Leo is meditating in Master Splinter's room."

"Well Raph, my body may be in sensei's room, but my soul is out here."

Raph paused as his face became bright with bewilderment. "Say what?"

Once more, if he had been able to, Leo would have sighed here. "It's kind of a long story…" he began.

Mikey felt a sudden rush of cold fear grip his body. If Leo was a soul, then did that mean? "Wait. Leo, you aren't…dead, are you?" he stuttered.

"Oh no Mike. I'm no where near that yet," Leo reassured him.

Mikey let off an enormous exhale of a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Whew! Thank goddess. You had me starting to worry there for a minute."

"But Leo, if you're a soul, but not dead, then how can you be…?" Donnie's voice scampered off into oblivion.

"As I said, it's a long story. But to put it bluntly…for the past few months, Master Splinter and I have been practicing astral projection."

"Astral what?" asked Raph.

"Astral projection Raph," Don repeated.

"I know what Leo said Don," Raph snapped back. "I'm just not sure what he's talking about."

"Oh it's not hard to get Raph," said Mike. "Astral projection's like when people can disconnect and separate their souls from their bodies. They can willingly allow their soul to leave their body and wander around for a period of time. Then, they can return to their bodies and go on living like nothing happened. Is that right Leo?"

Leo was impressed. "That's a pretty good explanation Mike."

"So you're telling me that this is what Leo's soul looks like?" Raph grimaced. "And that his body is sitting helpless without a life to support it?"

"Well, if you want to put it _that_ way, then yes Raph," said Leonardo.

"I can't believe it," said Raphael. "I would have thought that your soul would have looked a little more like yourself."

"That's because you're seeing my orb form Raph," said Leo. "I've actually learned to take many other forms, but I can only do two in the real world."

"What do you mean by 'other forms'?" asked Don.

"Well, the only way I could really explain it would be to show you," said Leo. He drifted backwards. "Just watch." The blue orb swayed in the air for a few seconds, then floated upwards. The three turtles lifted their heads as they watched the spirit. Leo swayed once more_. 'Ok, I can do this. I've done it a million times before. Fine, I'm lying, but I know I can do this.'_ He stared back at his siblings. Their avid stares amounted pressure on Leo he had not anticipated. _'But can I do it with my brothers watching?'_ Keeping the process of shape-shifting clear in his mind, Leo moved back towards the ground. Raph, Mike, and Don stared as a white mist began to surround the orb. Before them, it glowed bright, causing the three to cover their eyes. When they removed their hands, they were shocked to find the translucent image of their eldest brother standing before them.

"Holy canolie!" cried Mikey.

"You can say that again," said Raph.

Mike wasn't too consumed by amazement to recognize an opportunity for a joke. "Alright. Holy canolie!"

"Mike!" yelled Don and Raph. Raph turned to his younger brother and raised a fist at him.

Mike started to back off slowly. He raised his hands in defense. "Hey come on Raph. You told me to."

Raph was about to hit Mikey, when Leo stepped in between the two. "Raph, leave him alone."

Leo's sudden movement startled Raphael. He hadn't expected to see his brother move so fast and so silently too. "Whoa!" he jumped back. "How'd you do that? You moved like you didn't even touch the floor."

"That's because I'm not actually touching the floor. It's a perk I have while I'm a spirit."

"So it's true then," asked Michelangelo, "you really are a ghost?"

"No Mike, I already told you; I'm a spirit, not a ghost."

"Not that I'm fully willing to accept all this, but is there a difference?" Don wondered.

Donatello's innocent question had given Leo a chance to slow down from the excitement high he had been running on. Leo realized then that if he was going to succeed in training the others to astral project, he was going to have to be willing to answer all of their questions, no matter how many of them there were or how long they took to answer. _'I wonder if I was this inquisitive when I was first learning how to astral project; I certainly don't remember being so,'_ he thought. But Leo hoped that he could begin his brothers' training while he answered their questions. _'Well, I guess everybody's gotta start somewhere.'_ "Actually yes Don, there is a difference," he said. "A ghost is a soul whose body has died and for one reason or another has remained here on earth. A spirit (and here he indicated himself) is a soul who is simply detached from its body, which is still alive. Mikey's already explained to you what astral projection is, but I'm afraid he left out the price of it."

"Price?" Don repeated.

"What price?" Raph asked gruffly.

"The price that anyone conducting astral projection must be fully aware of and be prepared to pay if worst comes to worst."

"I don't know what you're talking about Leo, but I don't like the sound of it," Mike said cautiously.

This time, it was Raphael who was loosing his patience. "Leo, what's this all about, huh?"

Leonardo turned towards Raph. "I'm talking about death Raphael. About our bodies dying while our souls are separated from them."

"You're kidding, right? You mean that can actually happen?" asked Mikey.

Leo nodded. "I'm afraid so. The body can only live without its soul for so long. You see, the soul is what gives the body life; it's what gives the body the willingness to sustain itself, to live until it is too old and withered to do so anymore. During astral projection, all of the body's systems are put on stand-by and the body drifts into a suspended state."

"I knew it!" sparked Don. Leo, Raph, and Mike looked at him. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please, do continue."

Mused, Leo carried on. "Well, if the soul is gone for too long, the body, having no other reason to hold on to life, will pass away, and the spirit, if it does return, will be unable to reenter it. Without a body to support it, the soul then either crosses over to the next world or the soul remains on earth; thus, giving birth to a ghost."

"How long does a spirit have to be disconnected until its body dies?" Don asked.

"I'm not sure. I think it's mostly an individual thing: how strong the body is at maintaining life without its soul, which I would guess has a great deal to do with how much practice the person has had with astral projection. I have a feeling that the age of the body has an influence as well, especially since souls are timeless and posses no real age-only the knowledge and intuitive that they have gained while existing. Bodies and souls are born at the same time, but souls can never die, just move on some other place."

With a tentative swallow, Mike asked, "How long have you been gone from your body Leo?"

"Since eleven o'clock this morning."

"That was over nine hours ago!" Raph cried. "You mean to tell us that your lifeless body has been sitting in Master Splinter's room all this time?"

"It wasn't just my body Raph. Sensei has been leaving with me as well."

Donatello was getting slightly flustered. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. So both your souls are separated from your bodies right now?"

"Yes Donnie; that's correct."

"But neither of you are dead?"

"Not yet."

Don thought for a moment. "Astounding, and yet, highly perplexing at the same time."

"Look, I didn't come back to try to scare or confuse you guys," said Leo.

"You didn't? Then what did you come back for?" Raph asked.

"Yeah, and you said that Master Splinter went with you when you astral projected. If that's true, then where is he now?" wondered Mike.

"That's why I've come back. Master Splinter's in trouble and he needs our help."

Don, Raph, and Mikey perked right up. Anytime the words "peril," "danger," or "trouble" were combined with a name of one of their friends or family members, they knew that the time for action was soon at hand. In the turtle's world, nobody messed with their family.

"What?! Master Splinter's in trouble?!" yelled Mike.

"Tell me where they are Leo and I'll murder 'em!" growled Raph.

"Whoa! Calm down guys!" Leo had to shout over his brothers' raised voices.

"Calm down?! But Leo, you said Master Splinter is in danger. Shouldn't we do something?" Don asked. The purple-clad turtle had to contain his own amount of adrenaline beginning to rush through his system.

"We will guys, we will. But this time, we aren't going to be able to use our earthly weapons. No, in order to help Master Splinter I have to train you guys to use spiritual weapons."

Leo's brothers did a double-take between themselves. "Spiritual weapons?" Raph repeated brusquely.

"No earthly weapons?" It was clear Mike was as puzzled as Raphael.

Don sighed. "Something tells me we're going to be in for another crazy adventure, right Leo?"

"You guessed it."

"So what is it this time?" Raph requested.

"Well, once I had learned to fully accomplish astral projection, sensei began bringing me to the spirit world: a place where souls of both the departed and the still living can interact with one another. There, I met Master Mao-Shi, an old friend of Splinter's and a powerful spirit who in life was once a great martial arts practitioner. Yet, even in the spirit world, Mao-Shi has kept his vast knowledge of combat skills, though he has refined them for usage in the spiritual arts. Over time, he and Master Splinter have been training me how to fight as a spirit."

Michelangelo interrupted Leo. "Whoa, you mean, you can still fight even though you're like a ghost?!"

"I told you Mike, I'm not a ghost," Leo gritted. "But yes, there are actually a number of techniques one can learn. In reality, they aren't that different from the things we've learned over the years; they just rely more on ones inner energy and the result is more than what one might expect."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll sure all that's just great," Raph snapped. "But what's all this got to do with Master Splinter? You said he was in trouble."

"And he is. It was on one of our trips to the spirit world that Master Splinter was kidnapped-(Leo checked himself) rat napped by a malevolent spirit named Sarmon." Leo knew trying to explain that Splinter was actually taken by a giant cloud might sound too abnormal, even for him and his brothers, so he settled on a simpler account. "Master Shi wasn't with us at the time. I tried to stop him, but he grabbed sensei and managed to knock me out. When I came to, Mao-Shi was able to find me and told me about Sarmon once I explained to him what had happened. According to Mao-Shi, in life, Sarmon was a criminal who had tried to defy death by resorting to dark magic. He succeeded, but at his own personal cost. At the moment of his death, he read aloud a spell which he believed would grant him immortality. But, he mispronounced some words, and his soul ended up being trapped in the spirit world, never able to leave, never able to move on to the next life. But before he died, Sarmon had studied other spells, which, once he became a spirit, gave him immense powers, one of which is the ability to torment other souls in the spirit world. Master Shi said that Sarmon derives all of his pleasure now from the torture he commits upon others."

"And now this wackbag's got his mitts on Master Splinter?" asked Raph.

"Yes."

"But I'll bet sensei is really powerful himself right? So couldn't he find a way to save himself?" wondered Mike.

"And what about this Master Mao-Shi?" Donnie added. "You said he was quite powerful as well Leo. I'm sure he could handle Sarmon."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Master Shi wouldn't have sent me here to train you guys in astral projection if he didn't think that the two of us could take on Sarmon or that Splinter could handle himself."

Mike, Don, and Raph gasped. "WHAT!?"

Leo felt like rolling his eyes, if he actually had any physical ones at the moment. "Have you guys forgotten everything I've been saying to you?" Leo scanned his brothers, looking from one pair of eyes to the next. _'Obviously so,'_ he thought. "I have to teach you three how to astral project," he said bluntly.

"Whoa, astral project? You mean like you're doing Leo?" Mike asked.

"Yes Mike, exactly like what I'm doing."

"You can't be serious Leo," said Raph.

"I am Raph. Why would I kid about something like this?"

"But Leo, astral projection just seems so…illogical. It defies the laws of natural science." It was obvious that Don was as skeptical as Raph.

"Perhaps the _known_ laws of science Donnie, but not the laws of the unnatural. Master Splinter once told me when I was first learning that to astral project, that one must 'open their mind to the possibilities of anything and shut out the opportunities of nothing.' In a way, that's how you take the first step towards astral projection, and it's what you guys are going to have to do now if we want any chance of saving sensei."

"But how Leo?" Mike whined. "We don't know how to astral project."

"You don't, but _I_ do. That's why I'm here: to train you in the art of astral projection so we can travel to the spirit realm where Master Splinter is being held. There, Master Mao-Shi will aid me in teaching you how to fight as a spirit. From there, we will journey to where Sarmon is keeping sensei and get him back."

"Uh, Leo, as amazing as all that sounds, I still don't really know what you're talking about," the orange-banned turtle stated.

"Look, we don't have a whole lot of time. I've already wasted way too much filling you guys in as it is. For now, just trust me on this. You will learn everything you need to know as soon as we get to the spirit world and you meet Master Shi. I promise."

Mike, Raph, and Don looked at one another. They shared a tone of silent discussion before Donatello spoke up. "Well Leo, we do trust you."

"Yeah," Mikey agreed.

"Again I ask, what're we gonna do?" added Raph.

"First, I'm going to have to ask you guys to have patience with me, as I will attempt to have with you. But due to the seriousness of the situation, I'm going to have to rush this training a bit."

"That's okay Leo, we understand," said Mike. "Right Don? Right Raph?"

The two older turtles agreed.

"Fine. Then let's get started." Turning around, Leo walked over to the turtles' meditation mat. (Although since he was still in spirit form, Leo never really "walked," he hovered. However, due to a lack of a better term, the benefit of doubt can be given.) Leo knelt into a sitting position. "First, we meditate," he began. Following Leonardo's lead, Don, Raph, and Mike sat down on the mat and relaxed into the familiar pose for meditation. Naturally, they slowed their breathing and steadied their minds. All was quiet in the lair except for four reptiles' inhales and exhales. Cautiously, yet in control, Leo interrupted the silence. "Now, to astral project, one not only has to separate their soul from their body but their mind has to leave as well. Without the mind, the soul has nothing to guide it. You must focus. Image looking at yourself as an outsider, a third party. Keep this vision in your head; let it consume you. As you see others, let that be how you see yourself. Slowly, let separation that hold of you. As you would let go of someone's hand-that's the sense you need to indulge. Disconnect the consciousness of physical being so you may allow your spiritual being to become its own entity, completely independent from its earthly home. Only through this achievement of total sovereignty can your spirit attain absolute freedom."

Mike cracked an eye open. "Geez, it sounds like you're dying or something."

"It's not dying Mikey," Leonardo responded. "When death comes, there is no control over it. The spirit has no choice but to leave because its body can no longer support it. Astral projection differs in that you have to force the soul to leave the body where it naturally does not want to."

"I sure do hope our bodies don't die when we astral project."

"Don't worry, they won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I told you they won't and mine didn't when I achieved astral projection for the first time."

Raph retorted. "Yeah, but Leo, we ain't you. You may have just have gotten lucky that first time."

"I'm not even sure this is really going to work," Don added.

Leo tried to reassure his brothers. "It can and has worked. You just have to focus on doing as I say."

"I'm still not completely convinced," replied the purple clad turtle.

Leo groaned. He realized that unless he found a way to boost his siblings' concentration and motivation, their training was in danger of ceasing altogether. For the time being, their spirits remained firmly planted on earth. Leo knew that time was running short and that progress was going to have to be made soon or the turtles may never see their beloved master again. On top of that, Leo was finding it increasingly difficult to resist the growing temptation to return to his own body, which still sat empty in Splinter's room.

"Please guys, you have to trust me. I know all of you can do this. Believe me; it gets easier once you've done it the first time. You have to try, not just for me, but for Master Splinter. If I can't get you guys to astral project, then Master Mao-Shi and I won't have any help when we have to fight Sarmon."

Donnie, Mikey, and Raph once again looked at one another in skepticism, all sharing the same thought. And for a second time, it was Donatello who expressed it. "Alright Leo, we'll try."

"Thank you. Now, let's try it again. Concentrate and focus on separation and release. Allow your breath to slow and become internal as you put your body into a deep sleep. Slow your heart rate and work to shift your mind's controls from your body to your inner most being." For nearly an hour they sat, their labored breathing mixing with the drips of the liquids falling through the piping in the walls and the quenched splashing of the pool in the center of their home. And then, Leo's calm voice arose. "As you relax more and more, allow your consciousness to settle at your center, the very pit of your stomach, as far inside you as you can go. See yourself as pure thought, muse over that, feel it. Then, once you have a grasp on it, set it free; let it flow like a river, uplifting itself into the air and out into the world. This will be the feeling of leaving your body." Slowly, Leo surveyed his brothers. Though he didn't know what it looked like to actually see someone astral project, (Leo always had his eyes closed when he and Splinter left their bodies) he had a decent idea of what to expect. He watched the three closely. As time passed, Leo sensed their spiritual energy becoming more and more active, their souls disconnecting from their bodies.

Ironically, it was Donatello that was the first to attain full separation. His body fell into a slight limp as its normally light green hue lost some its shine, turning a darker tint. Leo watched as Donnie's soul rose cautiously above his body. By all respects, it was exactly like Leo's soul-a fist-sized orb-except that Donatello's was a watered, almost lilac, purple. Leo smiled with the knowledge that at least one of his brothers would get to feel the full satisfaction of such a triumph just as he had so many months ago. The oldest turtle also figured it was because he knew he had succeeded in granting some help for Mao-Shi and himself. Leo felt a sense of pride: Don's simple accomplishment meant that he had thrived in becoming an astral projection teacher. Yet, no more than a few seconds later, did Raphael's soul appear beside Donnie's. Leo took note that Raph's soul was also identical to his and his brother's, with the exception that it was colored in a faint blood red. A few more seconds strode by as the two spirits wavered in the air above their bodies. Silent as early morning dew, Leo turned his attention to his last brother. Michelangelo had yet to astral project-he had been the one Leo was sure would not be able to muster the amount of true concentration needed to astral project. But, curiously yet obviously, Mikey's sunrise orange spirit floated into the air, joining his siblings amongst the placid atmosphere of their underground abode. _'Wonderful,'_ thought Leo._ 'Just the fact that they've gotten this far is a surprise; I certainly wasn't expecting it. If I can now get them to the spirit world, then we might just have a chance. Once there, I'll have help with their training.' _Leo uncovered an agonizing thought in his mind. _'But first, we have to get there…'_ He paused._ 'Well, where there's a will, there's a way and we definitely have as much will as anyone else.'_

Up until now, the three newly cast souls had been utterly silent, merely dangling above their bodies' heads. Leo was just beginning to worry that something might have gone wrong, when the spirits suddenly gained a rather lively exposition, springing from a bout of silence to one of pure exhilaration and revelation.

"Wow, I can't believe it!" Mike exclaimed. "I'm actually a ghost! And I'm not dead!" Leo winced at Mike's repetitive though unintentional misunderstanding. "This is so cool!" Michelangelo's soul took off on a joy flight around the lair.

"Neither can I," agreed Don. Unknowingly, he recounted his earlier words. "I don't understand. How is this possible?"

"Does it matter Donnie?" Raph asked. "I mean, we are already doin' it, aren't we?"

"Well yes, but-"

"Sometimes, the only way to accomplish things is simply to do them," Leonardo said, "not to try and decipher them first. If you spend too much time attempting to discover how something is possible, you may miss your chance to experience it at all."

Donnie mused over his brother's insight. "Perhaps, but once all this is over and done with, I'd like to spend more time examining astral projection." He floated in front of his body. "I have nothing against the practice, but I'm not wholly comfortable with the idea that my body is still somehow alive without "me" in it."

"The feeling is mutual," said Leo. "Believe me."

"Make that triple," Raphael added.

"Wahoo!" Three souls gazed up at Mikey, who had completely disregarded any idea of how astral projection was obtainable and was thoroughly enjoying himself. The orange orb was spiraling around columns, twisting in the air, and coasting back and forth from room to room.

"Looks like Mikey's basking in his newfound freedom," quirked Raph.

"Perhaps a bit too much," said Leo.

Donatello looked at him. "What do you mean by that?"

Before Leo could answer, Mikey swooped in to a sudden halt before his brothers. "Man, you guys should try this. I've never felt so alive! Well…sorta."

"Maybe later Mikey," said Leo, "but right now we have more important things to concentrate on. Don't any of you forget why I had you astral project in the first place: to help Master Splinter. And the only way to do that is for you guys to pay close attention to me." At the mention of their father's name, the three immediately became serious.

"What do we have to do again Leo?" asked Mike.

"Now that we are spirits, we must journey to the spirit world and find Master Shi. He is going to show us how to defeat Sarmon and rescue sensei. But to get there is a difficult path filled with horrors and unknowns beyond what most came even imagine. You guys are going to have to stick as close to me as you can. It will be very easy for us to become separated, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to find you should anyone get lost."

"You just show us the way Leo and we'll follow you," said Raph.

Donnie and Mikey nodded.

"Good, then we'd better not spend anymore time around here." Standing up, Leo focused his energies upon his center and reverted back into a misty blue orb.

"Whoa," cooed Leo's brothers.

"Are we gonna learn how to do that?" Mike asked.

"Hopefully so," Leo replied. "Now stay together; keep your attention focused only on me and everything will be fine." He started to float towards the ceiling. "Oh, and try to keep up."

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**Author's Note: **That's all for now! Come back soon to learn if the turtles make it to the spirit realm. And what perils will they uncover when they go face to face with Sarmon? Are they already too late to save Master Splinter? You'll just have to wait and see… GOD BLESS!


End file.
